Posted on 02/24/2021 6:27:37 AM PST by Onthebrink
The Air Force Research Laboratory announced that their Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD program is advancing at a fast clip, with several major subsystems scheduled for delivery and assembly in the near future.
The Air Force describes the SHiELD program as an initiative that is essentially a defensive armament, intended to give airframes that carry a version of the SHiELD laser pod the ability to shoot down air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles — a task that comes with a host of technical hurdles to overcome. Namely, shooting down missiles at supersonic speeds is incredibly difficult.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
I want lasers on sharks.
Might be fairly easy to counter depending on required dwell time.
The missile can simply dodge when hit by a laser, possibly breaking the lock. That might work if the kill is not instantaneous.
ping
The Air Force Wants Lasers On Fighter Jets Like The F-15
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Could be useful on cars.
Think about what it took to generate enough power on the F-18 to make it an EWACS platform when the EA-G was retired. A HEAVY external power pod.
Gonna be interesting to see how they power these airborne lasers for real on the ‘smaller’ aircraft, although the F-15 is on the large end of fighter aircraft.
Since Lasers travel at C or approximately the speed of light, there is absolutely no way a missile can dodge a laser that is properly aimed at it.
Are you referring to the aiming mechanism?
We’re not talking sci-fi blasters but real lasers.
I think they should arm them with null rays like Starscream uses.
A laser aimed at an object some 5000 miles away takes the beam 27 milliseconds to get there and the missile is still moving either in ascent or descent...so the targeting system has to aim ahead of and to heuristically track where the missile “might” be from moment to moment. I suspect the hope is that the planes so equipped will be able to get considerably closer to their targets to bring more coherent energy to bear.
You are right, a target can’t dodge a laser, just its targeting system.
Assuming a dwell time is required to achieve a kill, then the missile can dodge in an attempt to make the targeting system lose its lock or otherwise have to re-acquire it.
Lasic surgery lasers, once targeted on the pupil can stay on target no matter the eye movement. Perhaps military technology is far greater advanced than medical tech.
Perhaps eyeballs are not changing direction at 9 gees?
No, there is almost no dwell time required. A laser system such as that actually mounted on an aircraft 15 years ago only required a very short time on target. The nearly instant energy transfer is enough to shatter the skin. Burn-through is not required.
SAMs and most A to A missiles are not that agile.
Instant kill means that it’s all she wrote - not chance at all to evade.
Frickin Sharks!
Back in the '70s I read a short story be some famous science fiction writer about a time when road rage was an accepted norm, and passenger cars had machine guns, like on WWI fighters, which would pop-up from the hood. There were extra dedicated lanes set aside on all highways solely to prevent such duels from encumbering regular traffic. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about that story since, especially when driving.
When do they get phasers?
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