By Noah Shachtman
July 30, 2008 10:00:00 AM
Categories: Lasers and Ray Guns
Courtesy Of Wired.com
Real-life laser weapons aren't here, yet. But they're getting closer. Which is why the Air Force is starting to look for ways to laser-proof its bombs and missiles -- with spray-on coatings, no less.
A new Air Force request for proposals asks researchers to come up with ways to find "retrofittable laser protection for weapons." In tests, U.S. and Israeli ray guns have shown the ability to melt holes in all kinds of munitions. Several American defense contractors are working to translate those results into battlefield tools. And if they're successful, the Air Force figures, it's really only a matter of time before some adversary's mad scientists figure out how to pull off the same trick. Hence the need for "High Energy Laser (HEL)-shielding technology that can be applied to vulnerable airframe components and internal guidance electronics of [a]ir-delivered bombs and missiles."
The idea isn't to renders the weapons "impervious" to ray gun blasts. The Air Force just wants the shield to delay the laser burning through a weapon's skin -- five seconds or so ought to do the job. The best way to make it happen, the service believes, is with "a thermal protection coating (e.g., spray-on) or a broadband reflector embedded layer on [the] munition['s] skin."
You read that right: a spray-on laser shield.
In the program's first phase, the ray gun protection would be tested in the lab. After that, the Air Force wants to "field demonstrate a prototypical system capable of defending and surviving laser attack during flight." In the end, the service suggests, it won't just be the military who benefits. The spray-on laser defense could protect "commercial airliners against worldwide terrorism and proliferation of ground-based laser weapon threats."
MTHEL - Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser:
ALSO:
No Laser Blasters. Yet.
Electric Laser Race Heats Up
Russian 'Expert': Soviets Had Laser Cannons First
Laser Gunship Blasts Beams, Preps for '08 Flight Test
Marines Request 'Long-Range Blow Torch' for Iraq
Lasers-Only on "Gunless" Gunship
Air Force Eyes Energy Shields, Microwave Bombs
Navy Pushing Laser 'Holy Grail' to Weapons Grade
Laser Jet Zaps Animated Missiles, Spouts Jargon
Israel's Military Shoots Down Laser Cannon
Israelis Sue Government for Laser Cannon
Laser Weapons Better Against Rockets?
Second life for Laser Defense?
Ray Gun "Holy Grail" Aims for Battlefield Strength
Monster Truck Gets a Laser
Laser Death Star
Laser Weapons Closing in on Reality
Real-Life Laser Rifle: Army Goal
Flipper Fires Lasers in Air Force Brief
Laser Relays Live!
Vice vs. the Flying Lightsaber
Laser Jet Over Oklahoma
Congress Slashes Flying Lightsaber
Pentagon Report: No More 'Death Rays'
Spooky Math for "Flying Lightsaber"
And:
Upgrading Ray Gun Components
No comments:
Post a Comment