Big stakes for lab to build battle laser

Oakland Tribune ^ | October 27, 2003 | Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

[demlosers]

General says he'll come up with $150 million if scientists produce mobile device within 18 months.

A two-star Army general threw down a challenge last week to Lawrence Livermore scientists: He will beat the bushes for more than $150 million if scientists can build the world's first mobile battle laser for test firing in 18 months. Livermore laser engineer Bob Yamamoto had been begging for this chance. But Livermore, specializing in nuclear explosives, never has built a full-up, firing weapons system for the battlefield.

"Eighteen months is very aggressive, and I'm saying that very politely," said Yamamoto.

On Tuesday, Major Gen. John M. Urias, the Army's chief acquisitions officer for air and missile defense, drew lab scientists and defense contractors into the hallway of an Albuquerque hotel so they could voice last-minute reservations.

Yamamoto, grinning wildly, said not a word.

The general then strode into a convention room and told 640 top U.S. directed-energy experts that Livermore's laser -- today, a profusion of wires, crystals and diodes on a tabletop -- was ready to be shoehorned into a Humvee and prove its mettle as a tactical weapon.

"We are no longer technology-limited. We are resource-limited," Urias said by phoneFriday. "I think we should charge on."

If he gets the money for Livermore and its team of defense contractors, the general suggested, the Army would get a prototype weapon that could open the military's imagination to what mobile lasers can do on the battlefield.

"I am convinced personally that the technology is evolving fast enough that we can do this," he said.

Three weeks earlier, the general donned green goggles in Yamamoto's lab and saw the world's most powerful solid-state laser drill through an inch of steel in two seconds.

"If anybody doubts what I am asserting, they need to go out to Lawrence Livermore lab and see this demo," said Urias, deputy commander of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and acquisitions executive for Air and Missile Defense.

More than the flying sparks and burning steel, he noted that the laser's components -- hundreds of lithium-ion batteries, a chilled-water cooling system, control chips and the nine-foot laser itself -- could be shrunk at least in half, even as engineers install bigger slabs of garnet to create more light and a more powerful beam.

If Urias can find the money, the clock starts ticking for Yamamoto to triple his laser's power to 40 or more kilowatts and, within a year, make it hardy enough for firing out of a Humvee. Fortunately, Yamamoto said, the thick, clear crystals of manmade garnet already are being grown.

"It will be ruggedized so it doesn't fall apart when they hit a pothole. We'll be able to drive around and hit targets on the ground and maybe -- maybe -- targets in the air," Yamamoto said. "That's a little fuzzy right now...But we'll be able to hit targets out of the sky."

Ultra-high power diodes like the ones in CD players and supermarket scanners have propelled solid-state lasers into an arms race with giant, chemical-powered lasers. The Army's Tactical High Energy Laser, pumped by combusting chemicals, already have shot Katyusha rockets and artillery shells out of the sky.

Those shootdowns ushered high-energy lasers out of Buck Rogers science fiction and into military reality. But for years to come, chemical lasers are likely to remain bulky and needful of fresh chemical supplies at a time when the Army wants high mobility and less reliance on supply lines. Solid-state lasers are electric. They can run off a Humvee's diesel-hybrid engine or perhaps a jet fighter's turbine.

"I see ultimately that for U.S. Army purposes, we will most likely and even definitely down-select to a solid-state implementation. Because it works," Urias said.

Yamamoto shares the faith. But he's a bit unnerved at being handed the challenge that he courted.

"Twelve months is as challenging as it gets to put a six-slab system, ruggedized, in a Humvee," he said. "We won't see our children in those 12 months."

Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com .

[My2Cents]

I don't get it. They're suppose to build the laser first, and then this general will get the funding??...Also, I like the pun, "...will beat the bushes..."

[demlosers]

Sorta confusing. I don't care as long as we get a solid state laser that can fry bad guy @sses.

[jjm2111]

""Eighteen months is very aggressive, and I'm saying that very politely," said Yamamoto."

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[My2Cents]

Yeah, the idea is cool. I want one of those....But in testing, make sure your phaser is set on "stun."

[Consort]

I hope they have a coherent plan.

[struwwelpeter]

Looked at in a different light, this is very interesting - and very out of character for DARPA.

Reminds me of the scene from The Core, when the scientist who invented the big drill was asked if he could build it in 3 months: "Yeah, if I had 100 billion dollars!"

To which the general replied: "Would you take a check?"

I wonder if - like in the movie (impending destruction of the Earth) - there is an urgent need for something fast.

[.cnI redruM]

These lasers will do nicely until they are subjected to varied atmospherics. What fires on a lab bench or through a vacuum will do very poorly in a desert or near an ocean. Anything that kicks up dirt or liquid aerosols, extincts light. Finding a wavelength that works will be highly difficult. Lasers are an easy weapon to spoof. We are still better off advancing our more powerful rocketry to the fire and forget stage.

[Flightdeck]

Man, that movie was so bad.

[struwwelpeter]

As in "George Clooney bad"? Or "James Brown bad"? ;-)

Just seemed interesting that a general would be asking for "a working prototype" with a short window.

[Blood of Tyrants]

the clock starts ticking for Yamamoto to triple his laser's power to 40 or more kilowatts

Phased plasma rifle in the 40 kilowatt range.

[Laserman]

As one who was at the conference last week, and who has spent much of my adult life on these technologies, I can tell you that we are more resource limited than technology limited for the near term tactical systems the General spoke of. Higher power systems for strategic applications still need research work, as do future generations of the battlefield systems, but we have already demonstrated the feasibility of systems (both ground mobile and airborne) that can bring revolutionary capabilities to the tactical war.

[SJSAMPLE]

The reason the airborne MIRACL laser works so well is that the beam is constantly moving through new, cooler air. The act of firing the laser disturbs (heats) the atmosphere it travels through.

The General also doesn't state the intended usage?
Anti-personel?
Anti-material?
Anti-Armor (no frigging way)?
or anti-sensor?

Different lasers for different usages. Having a starting point would be nice.

[muleskinner]

Arnold voice - "That's a good one."

[Laserman]

Actually the airborne system is a COIL laser not a MIRACL design. And yes thermal blooming is a problem under certain engagement geometries (more for ground based than for airborne), but most battlefield engagements are not "nose on" and thus have slew to mitigate the problem. Also, some laser wavelengths experience this problem to a much lesser degree than others. And with two or more systems, crossing fire can be employed.

[BMiles2112]

Three weeks earlier, the general donned green goggles in Yamamoto's lab and saw the world's most powerful solid-state laser drill through an inch of steel in two seconds.
Scary, that could burn through an Abram's armor in a mere 40 seconds, if it would only sit still...

[Nov3]

To disable a tank does not require drilling through the frontal armor.

[Dog Anchor]

I did not know that the Admiral of the Imperial Japanese navy was still around.

[.cnI redruM]

Anti-Personel would violate the Geneva COnvention. THat will be a moot point once several countries have tried and true Starship Troopers rifles, but is salient at present.

Anti-material is good if the stuff is flammable. Willie Pete is even better if the stuff is flamable.

Anti-Armor is possible. Not necessarily in the Star Wars sense, but more in the sense that it could overload sensitive portions of the vehicle with heat and cook off ammo or cause the engine or battery to fry and thereby generate a mob kill.

[theFIRMbss]

>As one who was at the conference last week

Will I be able --
soon -- to reach down to my belt,
draw, and zap bad guys?!
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