Americans are arming combat lasers

July of this year was rich in messages coming from the United States about the start of development. weapons future, which is based on the energy of laser systems.

First, the company General Atomics begins work on the development of high-energy combat laser HELLADS, which will be installed on US Air Force aircraft. All work will be carried out within the framework of the contract, which the General Atomics company concluded with the defense research agency DARPA.

The contract is the next step in the development of aviation laser, which is followed by successful field testing of auxiliary equipment. Based on the new contract, an 150-kW combat solid-state laser will be created, provided with liquid in-line cooling.

The weight of the aviation laser HELLADS, according to the designers, will not exceed 2 thousand kg, which will put it on different military platforms, in particular, fighters, patrol ships, reconnaissance aircraft, armored vehicles and, probably, even unmanned aerial vehicles. To date, General Atomics has successfully completed the development and field tests of a prototype power system, as well as a system for removing heat, thereby confirming that the auxiliary equipment of a completely new weapon is completely ready.

The first HELLADS test with an integrated 150-kW laser, fire control and cooling systems, and a power supply in the field is scheduled for 2013. and will be held at the range in the south of New Mexico - White Sands. After completing a number of operational as well as fire tests, the combat super-laser will be integrated as a separate B-1B bomber armament complex.

Combat laser HELLADS will allow to conduct high-precision fire from aircraft on a wide range of targets - from missiles to enemy personnel, while minimizing collateral damage in firing in densely populated areas.

Secondly, 25 July 2011g. The American corporation Boeing and the company BAE Systems, representing the UK, have signed an agreement on cooperation in creating an entirely new type of weapon designed for the US Navy.

Partners intend to implement the tactical laser system being developed today in a long-used navy Mk 38 Mod 2 gun system with a fully automatic 25 mm caliber gun. M242 Bushmaster.

In March of this year, BAE received from the US fleet $ 2,8 million to build a demonstration example of such a combined system. As a result, a hybrid installation of the future should appear - the Mk 38 Mod 2 Tactical Laser System, which combines a conventional gun and a powerful solid-state laser mounted in one unit. Presumably, they will use a joint guidance system.

According to the authors of the idea, a similar combination of two types of weapons will provide increased flexibility as well as accuracy in confrontation with small surface and air targets, such as boats, boats and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Comments

[Professor]

Back in 1996, the Americans made a combat laser to protect against short-range missiles, artillery shells and mines. The system however turned out to be expensive and not small in size (transported by several trucks). The main reason why he did not go into sulfur despite successful interceptions was the poisonous gas filler of the laser. If in the near future scientists will succeed in replacing it with a semiconductor laser, then we will witness the first operational laser in the missile defense service.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7etTYuXDb0g

[viktor_ui]

professor - apparently, at that time, they had experience in the use of gas-filled lasers as a working medium ... it is very interesting what kind of gas they used to increase the specific impulse at the output ... (after all, it was not used for cooling systems ). Let me remind you of one article from a very interesting magazine "Science and Life" (peace be upon him because I do not see it on sale anymore), and so it described our next glorious trap to the Western world in the area of ​​FIONITES - where we had the whole world far away n e (this is from a series of our lost victories), For the first time this invention almost brought down the entire global diamond trading business, but the second enema was in the field of solid-state lasers, where the use of a special grown crystal had an output pulse amplification of 1000000. 80s, it was officially recognized that
the world community needs at least 20-25 years to stomp to this level. I can remind skeptics about one more project (unsuccessful), the PHOBOS PROJECT was essentially a combat laser platform with the ability to evaporate soil from the surface and take a spectrogram from it - no need for a landing with drilling.
Maybe someone has another info ... with pleasure.
Yes, if anyone remembers the invention by the Japs in the early 90s of the so-called film-type battery capacities with an achromatic capacity - often the narrow-eyed ones would not let him go on sale ... and ???

[Eric]

Can I link to our past innovations?

[viktor_ui]

Eric - the article was read by me, in paper version, in '81 (in the summer area), then it didn’t smell of the Internet, but from the computer I saw NAIRI 3-11 alive from which I received as a gift a portrait of Monnyna Lisa from 1 and 0 - punched cards, -removed mat, were.
Otsel, in the balance, all the info in the head.

[cabin boy]

"... from the very interesting magazine" Science and Life "(peace be upon him because I don't see it on sale anymore), ..."
did you try to search in tyrnet? http://elbooka.com/zhurnaly/zhurnal-drugoy/10462-nauka-i-zhizn-7-iyul-2011.html

[viktor_ui]

so sometimes for 1980 - 1981, at one time I read the magazine "Voennoye Obozreniye" - fumbled in the net, trying to refresh some points - failed.

[cabin boy]

I mean that early you buried the journal "Science and Life", the subscription to it is free, even in the Leningrad region you can find it in kiosks. At the Moscow Book Fair and the St. Petersburg Book Salon I saw the stand of the editorial office, there is also an electronic archive on disks for sale, if you search, you can probably find a mailing list by mail, if you are of course interested.

[svvaulsh]

Professor, in gas lasers, the working fluid is a helium-neon filler, carbon dioxide. No poisons. These lasers are very bulky and have low efficiency. Semiconductor lasers have a meager output power (mW), and all they can do is burn a balloon, or blind a pilot on an approaching plane. The most advanced, and devoid of these shortcomings, are solid-state lasers with a working element based on AIG (yttrium aluminum garnet). Being quite compact, they have a large output power (for example, LTN-103 output power of 250 W, which allows you to cut metal). At the same time, all lasers are energy-consuming. Therefore, for each quantron you need to carry a power plant (for 50-60 watts of output power, 3-5 kW of pump power is needed). Plus a powerful cooling system. So while lasers are used as auxiliary systems, it is still far from combat use.

[Professor]

I partially agree with you. To date, the most powerful lasers are the so-called gas, i.e. with gas filler. Solid-state lasers: Yag or semiconductor lasers are more convenient to use, but less powerful. The fact that the gas in Nautilus is poisonous (they did not report what kind of gas) and was the main reason for not being adopted into service despite 100% of interceptions even of such small targets as mortar shells. As for "transporting the power plant": the solution was as follows. Spin the turbine of the generator to the maximum and shorten it. At this moment, the current strength jumps to infinity and is enough for a short laser pulse. Then the turbine is spun again.
The fact that similar systems were in the USSR is no longer a secret (in any case, the Grad rocket was intercepted). The question is what happened to them now ...

[svvaulsh]

Just at our enterprise the active elements of AIG-lasers based on neodymium and other generating additives are being grown. So I know the topic not by hearsay. I don’t have information about the turbine, the ignition system is completely different, otherwise the pump lamp will fail. Yes, and generation takes some time.

[Professor]

I forgot to specify another reason for which I did not go into the series: dependence on weather conditions. Efficiency significantly decreases with deterioration of visibility. For example, rain, snow, fog or sandstorm.

[svvaulsh]

This is the case for all lasers. I don’t remember where I read the article, so they write there that in order to combat the suspension of water dust, which limits the use of lasers on ships, amers want to use, in fact, another laser to burn this very water dust, and then, into this "hole" combat laser. From a technical point of view, I have no idea how to do this.


Oh! We have not yet grown up to engineer Garin (A. Tolstoy), who turned a simple match in a hyperboloid into a powerful weapon.

[viktor_ui]

svvaulsh - in the USSR, such crystals with unique properties were grown at near-earth stations to minimize growth errors due to gravity (also applies to a number of developments) ... I wonder how this issue has been settled at your enterprise (this is not a trick). Either there has been a jump in growth technology, or the end requirements have dropped.
I have a Chinese flashlight for 640 rubles. Powered by two finger batteries. It has one ice emitter the size of a match head. It pounds with a focused beam to a neighboring house (380 meters) with a white-blue column of light that you want to touch because of its density. We still have bright nights and have not yet succeeded in checking its range in full. Left on, it began to show signs of fading after 3 hours (the batteries came with it and do not have an increased capacity).
You have a good job - success.

[cabin boy]

Yes, ours are still very, very far from such a flight of fancy to saw the dough. Particularly impressed and frightened by the progress in US laser combat systems "... such a combination of two types of weapons will provide increased flexibility and accuracy in confrontation with small surface and air targets such as boats, boats and unmanned aerial vehicles."

[viktor_ui]

Junga - in vain you laugh at the amers ... at one time, the Sora (o) sa fund very effectively sucked out most of our scientific personnel (I mean the personnel of the USSR).

[cabin boy]

You see, dear, if the system is designed to suck out money, how many Russian, Indian, Chinese, etc. brains do not pump in, the money will be sucked out, and all kinds of ballistic missile intercepts are needed so that this suction does not stop. Well, when, for example, the Chinese team up, finally, our Soviet developments and the question arises that China might have a combat laser, only then can it be said that work is underway in the United States to create a combat laser.

[viktor_ui]

Jung - our achievements have long been communized and sold along with our brains. you understand that the USSR was cut off at the time of a qualitative leap (they wouldn’t have written about the great stagnation and any other crap). Amer do one very right thing, they are busy with multi-vector development, they try everything and everything and it is very cool, in general, for science. Well, and whoever makes projects for them to cut the dough and they catch him, they just won’t transfer him to another job, but they will put him in full, unlike our reality.
We are constantly trying to catch up and overtake amers ... like we don’t have brains and we can’t think of anything ourselves - OR OR ALL THE CONDITIONS FOR THIS ARE CREATED FOR US OR WE ARE LIEED TO US.
Well, about the magazine ... I won't even read today's sales, because for several years I have been hooked on the free Internet resources of NASA - where I can not only read, but also really look at the topic or object of interest.
Good luck.

[raf]

viktor_ui cautious wave the flashlight raking in, they say the pilots are blinded

[Honory]

It is clear that in 2013 no laser will stand up on combat alert. Yes, the Americans are very active in this direction, but still far from the series, and the success of their prototypes is quite modest.