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| Science & Technology |
| Bring on the death rays! Laser Truck Inches Closer to Iraq Battlefield |
| 2008-07-24 |
| Erik Sofge, Popular Mechanics Looking up in Iraq is still a dangerous proposition. Mortar blasts continue to penetrate—with rare deadly force—the Green Zone and other protected areas because militias can find them, like rockets and other indirect-fire weapons, on the cheap, and fire them from shoot-and-hide platforms. In an attempt to shore up its safe havens in the war zone, the Pentagon asked Boeing a year ago to develop a preliminary design for a system that could control a laser beam—but not just any laser beam. This one would come mounted on a truck that could defeat a persistent surprise threat from above. And this week the defense contractor delivered, bringing the Army one step closer to getting what can only be described as a laser truck—one capable of disabling incoming rounds. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #7 Moose, since the photo shows the system fits on one truck, it sounds like a laser diode pumped Nd:YAG disk laser. The semiconductor laser diodes are all switched on at the same time to get maximum power per volume. Add a large bank of NiMH or high power Lithium batteries and the system won't even have to run it's generators most of the time. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-07-24 21:22 |
| #6 bj-k, they've had counterbattery radar for decades. I suspect that the launch sites are in inhabited areas and the return fire is not so accurate you can guarantee no innocents will be killed (no eyes on the ground for smart munitions). The launch teams bail before troops or drones can get "eyes on" (they hope). |
| Posted by: tipover 2008-07-24 19:01 |
| #5 They are probably using pulsed solid-state lasers which have a very rapid turn around. A bunch of lasers that fire in order through lenses, Gatling gun style, giving the others time to cool down. Interestingly, this use of laser goes against the rule for lasers. That is, usually you want a narrow beam, but in this case, you want a wide beam. If you were using a narrow beam, it could take as much as 100kW of energy to burn into a flying 60mm mortar round. However, if instead you use a wide beam to *heat* the round, you only need about 20kW to heat it up so much it bursts. Importantly, it will do so at 500 meters. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-07-24 16:44 |
| #4 It's about time, I wonder how many rounds it can handle at once? Now all they need is a targeting system that computes the parabolic trajectory of the round and automatically dispatches return fire to within a few feet of the origin. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-24 14:23 |
| #3 It's about frikken time!! |
| Posted by: Dr. Evil 2008-07-24 14:03 |
| #2 And when will the first one arrive in Sderot? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-07-24 14:00 |
| #1 More, Faster please. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-07-24 13:56 |