From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 18 2003 - 01:01:49 MDT
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/TechTV/techtv_laserartillery030416.html
While troops won't be replacing their assault rifles for ray guns just yet,
high-tech lasers are nearly ready for other combat uses.Last year the U.S.
and Israeli armies field-tested a chemical laser made by TRW that
successfully knocked out 100 mm rockets and artillery shells.
But making powerful lasers fit for use against enemy artillery means that
they'll have to be mobile enough to keep up with fast-moving tanks and other
units that make up a modern fighting force.
And the key to developing a more agile laser system may lie in research being
done at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.
Making Laser Systems Mobile
"This is actually a very pivotal time in terms of high-powered laser
systems," says Brent Dane, project manager for high-energy lasers at Lawrence
Livermore Labs.
For about six years he and his team have been hard at work on a high-powered,
portable, electric laser for the U.S. Department of Defense.
"If there's one sort of key aspect of a solid-state laser, it's mobility,"
Dane says. "And the mobility comes from a very high electrical efficiency and
architectures which support compact, very lightweight designs."
Humvee-Mounted Defense
Using special "beam director" software, a laser can lock onto an in-flight
missile and heat the explosives inside their metal shell, causing them to
detonate before they reach their target.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has just developed a 25-kilowatt laser and is
working on a 100-kilowatt version, which Dane says will supply enough power
to knock out a missile in two to three seconds.
The 100-kilowatt laser should be ready for combat by 2010, Dane says.
However, the battlefield technology doesn't end with the lasers. The lasers
will likely ride into battle atop hybrid electric Humvees.
"If you look at the typical traction battery that's being proposed for these
hybrid electric vehicles," Dane says, "that battery will be adequate for
actually powering a hundred-kilowatt laser system."
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