aeroengineer

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/asia/...cli/index.html

All the talk so far has been how they can shoot down unmanned drones. I don't think it's too much of stretch to believe they can't eventually be used against manned platforms. In the end the same laws of physics apply to friends and foes alike.

rickair7777

Yes, it's coming. Already demonstrated for use against missiles and surface threats...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/SEQ..._Weapon_System


The Navy is building ships with the electrical power capacity to support retrofit.

New tactical aircraft are being designed with consideration for power and also heat dissipation.

But there's a challenge for anti-aircraft systems: keeping the laser focused on a distant, maneuvering target long enough to do damage.

Boost-phase missiles tend to maintain a predictable trajectory, and so are relatively easy to track with a laser long enough to apply destructive energy (in the boost phase). Surface targets are closer, slower, and move in two dimensions only. Tactical aircraft can evade, and are far enough away to be a targeting challenge... you might singe the paint, but the he'll jink and your targeting problem will be quickly compounded by the multiple radar-homers he fires back at you.

Excargodog

Only problem is, unless we go to a totally Enclosed cockpit or start wearing PLZT goggles,



you are depending on a mere treaty to keep seeing::

Hobbit64

this post reminded me of this news story:CNN - Suspected Russian laser injures U.S. officer - May 14, 1997

BoilerUP

Not sure if this is more the novel "Debt of Honor" or the movie "Real Genius".

Excargodog

The real problem for us is that quite capable laser diodes are coming ridiculously inexpensive.

https://youtu.be/kGwleH913zs

rickair7777

Lasers specifically intended to permanently injure eyes are illegal per international convention.

Lasers intended to do other damage, which might injure eyes incidentally, are legal (just like a JDAM will probably injure your eyes if it hits you).

The kind of lasers useful against tactical military platforms would burn the laser googles right off of your face (and also burn your face off too).

aeroengineer

One of my former troops (works for Raytheon now)with the 100lb brain and admittedly way smarter than me said that the higher power lasers coming down the pike don't need much dwell time to destroy the target. Eventually the upper limit happens when the beam starts to ionize the atmosphere. Due to power supply size and the need for heavy duty cooling means surface based systems will have something of the advantage for now.

rickair7777

Surface based systems with multiple firing elements (including those on either end of a warship) have an advantage in that they can apply cumulative power to the target without having to push all that power through the same slice of atmosphere (which as you said will ionize eventually).

I'd expect lasers on aircraft to be employed as close-range missile defense counter-measures first (such systems already exist). AAMs are softer targets than manned aircraft, especially if the seeker is staring straight into the laser boresight.

But i doubt a fighter could carry the power and cooling required for a longer-range directed energy weapon. For BVR, it's still going to be missiles for a long time, maybe lasers can evolve from counter-measures to short-range dogfight weapons... you could probably fire them somewhat off boresight, so maybe more flexible than a gun while maneuvering.

But probably still need the gun for DAS/CAS, no way does the math work for tacair to carry a laser big enough to target mech/armor.

Excargodog

Chemical lasers. You’d be amazed the power you can store in the right chemicals. You keeping abreast of the new small torpedoes under development?

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...avy-submarines

Exotic chemical combinations - in this case a solid block of lithium that then gets bathed in sulfur hexafluoride gas - produce enormous power without the need for much electricity.

And for chemical lasers, heat is far less of an issue. For that matter they might be one-time use - like a missile.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/art...ns_110966.html