5 ms·
Some other bits to read: * Popsci got a range day with an earlier 10kW version (https://www.popsci.com/technology/firing-raytheon-laser-weapon/ https://www.pop
by icegreentea2 4y ago
Some other bits to read:
* Popsci got a range day with an earlier 10kW version (https://www.popsci.com/technology/firing-raytheon-laser-weapon/ https://www.popsci.com/technology/firing-raytheon-laser-weap...). The version being deployed is 50kW. Naively extrapolating - they were able to pop unarmored drones in ~10-20 seconds at 10kW.
* Some scant technical details (https://www.laserfocusworld.com/lasers-sources/article/14277939/highenergy-laser-weaponry-delivers-speedoflight-hard-kills-to-drones https://www.laserfocusworld.com/lasers-sources/article/14277...). It's a fiber laser system
- Havoc 4y ago20 seconds still seems like a long time. Especially if you can presumably add something heat tile-ish to buy you extra time The trend is strong though. Laser wars are coming
- sandworm101 4y agoMirrors and/or tinfoil are remarkably effective against lasers. Also, the IR reflective coatings found on most car windows.
- XorNot 4y agoThis is nebulously true. The best reflector is silver for visible light, and that's about 95%. But as soon as you discolor from heat on the surface, the reflectivity plummets and the beam can then burn through - the first failure compounds into the rest.
- sandworm101 4y agoSilver across frequencies, but engineered substances, the type used in laser safety devices, can have very good reflection at specific wavelengths without the weight of silver. For a flying object at any distance, anything close to 90% reflectivity for a few seconds would radically extend survival time. Local burn through can be survived as the beam will by dancing across the target.
- jandrewrogers 4y agoSome of these lasers are effectively white light by design. You can design dielectric mirrors against one frequency but not all frequencies.
- sandworm101 4y agoWhite lasers only look white by mixing a handful of colours. That's why laser safety goggles are still transparent, they only block those frequencies known to be generated by current laser tech.
- chipsa 4y agoSupercontinuum lasers are actually white, in that they are a broad range of frequencies of light. It is recommended you don't try to use laser safety googles with them, as there is no specific frequency you can guard against. Whether this applies to the weapons power laser discussed is another question entirely.
- anon_cow1111 4y agoTHIS- if you want a laser reflector for some hypothetical scenario; Electroplate some mirror-polished silver onto a big ass heatsink bulk metal. Aluminum foil by itself isn't going to do shit for any high-powered attack; as soon as it reaches a critical temperature the surface will get rough on a molecular level, decreasing the reflectivity 100 fold and burning a hole in itself.
- chipsa 4y agoThis presumes that the big ass heatsink metal can effectively receive the heat from the laser. This is part of why some lasers are pulsed: the average power is not too high, but the instantaneous power is high enough to cause the surface of the material to ablate anyway. At which point your reflectivity goes to crap.
- PicassoCTs 4y agoThe best reflector is something that vaporizes into a aerosol and soaks up light. So the best reflector is a package of vaping fluid.
- ta988 4y ago10 seconds on a moving target is a long time unless you have good quality tracking.
- WestCoastJustin 4y agoIf the drones move anything like this https://www.youtube.com/@quadmovr/videos https://www.youtube.com/@quadmovr/videos you're lucky to get 1 second. Tracking would need to be unreal.
- simonh 4y agoTrue, but they're not deploying 10 kW lasers. They're 50 kW.
- Animats 4y agoThe consensus for years has been that 100KW is about where lasers become militarily useful. Solid state lasers are about there now. There's a new line of development - the Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser. One terawatt for 200 femtoseconds. Unclear what that will do. It's not much energy.
- bobowzki 4y agoStupid question: What about a drone with mirror finishing?
- simonh 4y agoThere's discussion of this already in the comments. TLDR, the reflective layer discolours and burns rapidly unless mated to a heat sink, so probably too heavy for drones, but there may be options against specific laser frequencies.
- fsh 4y agoIt would be interesting to see how well this thing performs against a drone wrapped in aluminum foil. I have some experience with high-power NIR lasers, and plastic is much much easier to burn than shiny metal.
- dr_dshiv 4y agoChrome spraypaint?