Article

2007-12-11 Science & Technology

Boeing Installs High-Energy Laser On C-130H Gunship Aircraft

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Posted by 3dc 2007-12-11 09:09|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 I want a freaken C-130 with a freaken laser beam strapped to it!

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-12-11 10:27|| 2007-12-11 10:27|| Front Page Top

#2 Paint a shark mouth on the nose of the plane, just to tie different memes together.

Posted by Steve White">Steve White 2007-12-11 10:33|| 2007-12-11 10:33|| Front Page Top

#3 Death rays. Cool.

Posted by Mike 2007-12-11 12:25|| 2007-12-11 12:25|| Front Page Top

#4 Air combat in the future is going to be strange. Between drones and lasers, the skies could be full of air armadas or almost empty.

GPS may become outmoded in several ways, and might have be replaced by artificial intelligence that computes location based on geographical features and electronic signatures.

Spacewar may be independent of the air war, just provide support operations, or be an active participant with defensive and offensive weaponry.

A critical factor will be if someone can innovate anti-laser shielding, passive or electronic.

If too many electronic systems are involved in the battlefield, one side or the other may decide to create a low-blast EMP generating atmospheric nuke to neutralize much of the enemies electronic systems, while shielding its own. The Russians planned for this in the last 20 years of the Cold War. And it might be small enough to avoid nuclear retaliation.

Endless possibilities.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-12-11 13:00|| 2007-12-11 13:00|| Front Page Top

#5 Would a mirror shield reflect away the laser?

Posted by Grunter 2007-12-11 16:06|| 2007-12-11 16:06|| Front Page Top

#6 That's no moon...

Posted by Excalibur 2007-12-11 16:26|| 2007-12-11 16:26|| Front Page Top

#7 A mirror for the right frequency would be good. Smoke too.

Posted by James">James 2007-12-11 17:17|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]">[http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2007-12-11 17:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Crack the mirror by some type of round fired from the C130, then commense melting the target.

Posted by www 2007-12-11 18:27|| 2007-12-11 18:27|| Front Page Top

#9 Mirrors are pretty ineffective against high power lasers. The most effective thing is obscuration. After that, perhaps a nano-coating of some very heat conductive substance like diamond, on top of a powerful insulator, as well as sensors that would cause rapid course corrections when they detected more than normal heat. And yes, the sensors might even cause the target to start giving off a "refractive smoke" to shield its body.

Lasers must fix on targets for quite a while before they will damage them. So it might be possible to use a combination of things to prevent it from doing its job.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-12-11 18:39|| 2007-12-11 18:39|| Front Page Top

#10 'moose, have you worked with HELEOS?

Posted by lotp 2007-12-11 18:56|| 2007-12-11 18:56|| Front Page Top

#11 "Next year, we will fire the laser at ground targets, demonstrating the military utility of this transformational directed energy weapon."

Make them black turbans and you'll have me sold!

As for mirrors, if you pulse the laser beam it will drill through the mirror in much the same way that lasers are used to drill steel. On for a zillionth of a second to heat up the steel, it splatters out of the way, then repeat the process deeper and deeper until you have drilled a hole. I don't think there is anything that can stand up to this kind of attack.

Posted by gorb 2007-12-11 23:33|| 2007-12-11 23:33|| Front Page Top

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