Warfare at the speed of light

Oakland Tribune ^ | 2003-10-19 | Ian Hoffman

[Filibuster_60]

What a joke! I bet that the Chicoms already have spied on most of what Livermore has produced.

No kidding. Consider this:

China advancing laser weapons program
Technology equals or surpasses U.S. capability

[Abogado]

Check out the laser "drill" on used in "The Core" Movie.

[jwh_Denver]

ok but what do they reeeeaaaaaaaly have.

I don't know but I want one!

[quietolong]

What happens when somebody holds up a mirror and bounces it back!;-)

[SauronOfMordor]

Chemical offers the best bang for the buck right now, but hopefull solid-state will catch up. It just makes things so much easier

For a satellite, you want solid state. It's real hard to ship replacement chemicals to a satellite -- solar cells keeping storage units charged is a lot easier

[Paul Ross]

Ping

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Paul Ross]

Yup. Just like the Chinese snarfed up Magnequench and Terfinol-D super-technologies. Would not be surprised if there weren't at least 12 Chinese graduate students working with these professors. Time for a few unfortunate...and lethal... 'accidents' to befall these harmless foreign seekers of a better way of life.

[Light Speed]

TESLA'S SECRET AND THE SOVIET TESLA WEAPONS

Tesla Weapons

Scalar Potential Interferometer

Aviation Week & Space Technology July 28, 1980

[Travis McGee]

The Navy is all over this. They are going to electric-drive ships, where giant electric generators are used for propulsion, or the full juice can be diverted into their huge beam weapons.

[Paul Ross]

The Navy, with its long-standing emphasis on 'all-weather' capability may instead put more of its emphasis on the rail-gun technology which should be impervious to foul weather or enemy countermeasures. And that technology is, at least on a bench prototype basis demonstrating all the firepower and speed we would want, and is fully capable for weaponizing right now. Fleet deployment could be ten years out depending on budgetary issues.

Laser systems of course, in a modular ship design, could likely always be swapped in and out of the hulls so long as their targetting control operations are compatible.

[Travis McGee]

You are right, I should not have said beam weapons, but energy driven weapons. Rail guns being example one. But the idea is to build a ship around massive electrical generating plants, and use that full juice for either propulsion or weaponry, depending on the needs of the instant.

[Pro-Bush]

free-electron lasers (FEL) is a Direct Energy Weapon ...Million times more powerful than a supermarket laser scanner

[null and void]

It's probably sufficient to ionize a channel above Maximum Leader and let the resulting lightning from the charge equalization zot him...

[B-Chan]

No wuss lasers! I’m talking about a gamma ray laser weapon. A laser beam composed of pure, coherent gamma radiation would be almost identical to the kind of sci-fi laser we see in the movies — a beam that could flash-heat matter into vapor instantaneously, slice through metal and concrete, and set buildings, vehicles, and people on fire from orbit. Of course, no one has ever built a gamma ray laser weapon yet...

...or have they?

[Paul Ross]

A variety of X-Ray lasers were developed in the late '79 into the 80's as part of Excalibur battle-satellite research. They worked (the atmosphere, however, is opaque to X-ray frequencies...and a good thing too). They were extraordinarily powerful. The research was ultimately kiboshed under GHWB, who was opposed to the small nuclear bomb-pumping necessary for the devices, and he also bought into a series of 'anti' Excalibur scientific briefs disputing the efficiency of the pumping and the actual power levels obtained.

The best and only sure test would have been exoatmospheric tests of a full device. But that was a non-starter for him due to the Atmospheric Test Ban treaty. And hence Sr. Bush cut all Excalibur funding. Just like the RATs cut off all Safeguard funding the day it was declared operational. Without the funding, the bogus 'anti' papers prevailed. So far. The Chinese, however, appear not to be persuaded of the 'anti' Excalibur crowd, and are indeed pouring massive efforts into this. We could be witness to their 'breaking out' of a MAD scenario with a vastly more robust missile defense than ANYTHING GWB has or would authorize. He appears to have contradictorily, inappropriate financial scruples about our defense and military.

[TADSLOS]

Ping. This is right up your beam, as I recall...

[truthandjustice1]

Would you please add me to these lists?