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The ABL was a megawatt class laser and when they cancelled it the reasoning was that it would need to be 10x more powerful for the mission. They wanted to knock
by mberning 4y ago
The ABL was a megawatt class laser and when they cancelled it the reasoning was that it would need to be 10x more powerful for the mission. They wanted to knock out ICBMs during the boost phase from a considerable distance. This one is much more of a close in system, but the power level does seem to be a bit “low” for the claimed mission.
- icegreentea2 4y agoABL wanted to shoot down missiles like 300km+ away. Lasers in atmosphere drop off faster than inverse square (because absorption and scattering are significant), so long range lasers need huge amounts of power. Conservatively assuming inverse cube, going from 300km to 10km engagement gives you like 27,000x increase in flux.
- Robotbeat 4y agoNo. The reason they canceled it was because it was a chemical based laser system and thus a logistical nightmare with a shallow magazine. The operational laser weapons are electrically pumped.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoFrom what I recall, the chemicals in question, were kind of a “Satan’s Soda Pop” brew, and were quite difficult to manage.
- speed_spread 4y ago> Satan's Soda Pop I found this on Wikipedia and I agree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_iodine_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_iodine_laser Looks like a good topic for one of those "chemicals I will not work with" chronicle.
- flangola7 4y agoThe chemicals don't look that bad. Chlorine, iodine, potash, peroxide. I wouldn't go swimming in them but it's not like they're HF.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoWasn’t the ABL airplane-based? That adds a new dimension. Also, raw peroxide is pretty hairy. I think one of the X-planes (maybe the X-15) used it as fuel. Pretty hypergolic.
- giantrobot 4y agoThe ABL would have also needed dozens of jets flying over the aggressor launching ICBMs to even start to fulfill its mission. To provide enough areal coverage and killing shots several dozen if not a hundred would be needed. The ABL likely developed a lot of cool and still classified technology but it was itself unlikely to ever be a practical system.
- azernik 4y agoThat was for much more challenging targets at much longer ranges. Shooting down an ICBM at hundreds of km requires much higher energies than shooting down a drone at 1-10km