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| Science & Technology |
| US Navy Blasts Target Boat With Advanced Laser Test |
| 2011-04-09 |
| A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to retrofit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday. "We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," said chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr. The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun mounted onto the deck of the Navy's self-defense test ship, former USS Paul Foster. In a video of the event, the small boat can be seen catching fire and ultimately bursting into flames, a conflagration caused by the navy's distant gun. Some details of the event were classified, including the exact range of the shot, but Carr could provide some information: "We're talking miles, not yards," Carr said. "This is the first time a [high-energy-laser], at these power levels, has been put on a Navy ship, powered from that ship and used to defeat a target at-range in a maritime environment," said Peter Morrison, program officer for the Office of Naval Research. The weapon, called the maritime laser demonstrator, was built in partnership with Northrop Grumman. It focused 15 kilowatts of energy by concentrating it through a solid medium -- hence the name. "To begin to address a cruise missile threat, we'd need to get up to hundreds of kilowatts," Carr said. The Navy is working on just such a gun of course. Called the FEL -- for free-electron laser, which doesn't use a gain medium and is therefore more versatile -- it was tested in February consuming a blistering 500 kilovolts of energy, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second. The FEL will easily get into the kilowatt power range. It can also be easily tuned as well, to adjust to environmental conditions, another reason it is more flexible than the fixed wavelength of solid-state laser. But the Navy doesn't expect to release megawatt-class FEL weapons until the 2020s; among the obstacles yet to be overcome, the incredible power requirements of the FEL weapons require careful consideration. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #3 Time to field test this thing on some pirates. Call it 'Operation Kingsford.' |
| Posted by: USN,Ret 2011-04-09 14:35 |
| #2 And That-Guy-from-Guam sill has not received his much-beloved, much-deserved Hoagies from DARPA, JPL - the Fed must still be love wid SOLYENT GREEN. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-09 00:15 |
| #1 Meanwhile, SUPER-AEGIS is repor selling like hotcakes, being in mucho demand by international seekers + buyers. * ION DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS > [Retired JSDF VADM] FAR EAST GOING BALLISTIC. ARTIC = Friend andor Foe, East Asia is going NOT-LADY-GAGA oer Mil Buildups + new inter-State(s)Defense-Security coops + alliances. JAPAN CAN NO LONGER BE ON THE SIDELINES, ESPEC AS PER GROWING REGIONAL DOUBTS OER US MILPOL RELIABILITY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-09 00:11 |