Tracking the MTHEL Laser

Technology Review ^ | May 9, 2005 | Sam Jaffe

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Or ? the look on the face of the terrorist insurgents firing mortars into GreenZones and having his mortar go " POOF " and the look of horror on their faces as the mortar falls back on their heads.. PRICELESS
But, we know the liberals/OLD/WORTHLESS/MSM will make political hay out of the USA's deployment of those lasers abusing the terrorist/insurgents because the mortars are falling back on their heads.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

..... the force isn't ready yet.... need bigger and better batteries in the range of 100 Kilowatts.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Friendly air assets have IFF transponders, don't have the profile of a projectile in flight. That shouldn't be a problem."
Well radar will not recognize IFF signal. IFF is a low frequency radio frequency relative to the frequency range of the radar, however as you indicated, if the firmware in the radar computer is programed to track only certain type trajectory paths, and speed envelopes, then perhaps my comment is simply a mute point. For example, anything flying less then say 300 knots in horz/vertical gets ignored, e.g. no lock on that identity. Guess we shall see more on this system as time goes by.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Another interesting question: If MTHEL has sufficient range, a clear field of view and a high priority human target heaves into view, do we take the shot? Hmmmm. I think I would vote yes on that."
Guess time will tell. Obviously our military in joint efforts with defense contractors continue to work toward these type weapon systems.

[Marine_Uncle]

"What are the measurements of power, as in kilowatts, megawatts, gigawatts."
Not sure what your asking but,
kilo = thousand 1x10^3
mega = million 1x10^6
giga = billion 1x10^9
Where power is measured as the area under a particular shaped pulse of energy, at a given frequency (duration of the pulse of energy). Beyond this explaination it would require to much writing.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

lol...
I was never good at math.
So those sold state lasers would only need 100 Kilowatts ?
Couldn't high power , high velocity capacitors provide those kinds of watts for that short duration of time ?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Once again, I am not a electrician, or a engineer, but, I do know that capacitors can provide a heck of a lot of power in a short duration of time.

[Techster]

It is Likely that the power is limited by lasing device not the power supply.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

So... basically ? what ever makes it shine, and go BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... can't handle the 100 kilowatts ?

[Marine_Uncle]

"Once again, I am not a electrician, or a engineer, but, I do know that capacitors can provide a heck of a lot of power in a short duration of time."

Not being familiar with the actual design I hesitate to make comments. The answer is quite complicated in essence.
But the problem(s) are manifested in the need to have a readily low cost, low weight, easy maintanable power source, and both the electronics as well as the type laser system that would be required. We can generate extremely high energy short duration laser beams well over a megawatt for instance. But the type laser systems used to generate very high energy beams are not available within the solid state type lasers. It is not a question of a particular type of capacitor system etc.. The problem is how one can design a solid state component that can deliver the required pulsed energy both efficiently and reliably. The high energy power sources, using a very generic term have been available for a long time. Beyone these few simply words, it would require a long desertation. And I haven't any experience in laser development to begin with. But I can say, the capacitors are not the issue. Sorry I really can't say more.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Here is a Idea, but , the enviro wackos won't go for it.
I know they can built small nuclear reactors for subs and aircraft carriers, and I don't know how much small they can make nuclear reactors, but ? couldn't they build a small enough nuclear reactor not only provide electricity for the military base, and provide the power for the lasers ?
Then, again, it's probably not cost effective, and I am not sure about the weight, or the maintenance aspect.
I am just getting my brain thinking here, trying to come up with some ideas, it won't hurt for the government or the military to get people to come up with ideas and be innovative.
Since that is in Iraq, couldn't solar power be feasible ? would solar power product enough energy ? I can't get my brain to stop thinking and coming up with ideas,, lol.
By the way ? I drew a picture of a flying wing, blended wing airplane that might work for civil and passenger service.
I know a blended wing/flying wing that they have now for concept civil and passenger airplanes might not be feasible ( I might be wrong, they may have already found a solution for that ) because you can't put passengers in the outer part of the wings.
But, I came up with a solution for that, to still have a blended wing, flying wing design.
Take care.

[Marine_Uncle]

What they seek in these type systems is a sufficient solid state laser. The problem is to design the "element" that produces a beam of energy once it is properly "excited", in this case, by a very high energy pulse of very short duration electrical pulse. Apparently we have not come up with a "laser element" that can in very simply terms, get excited (receive a certain type of electrical pulse), then quickly, effeciently, e.g. not absorb and retain to much energy in the way of heat, and within the time frame required (very short, less then thousands of a second), produce the required energy that has been converted into light (all types of lasers are available to produce a very tight coherent beam of light in a given frequency range).

As I mentioned before, the power supply requirements of the system are not an issue. We have such systems in place. The issue is to be able to design then fabricate a special type of laser device, OK, think of the James Bond Movie--- Goldfinger.....remember that red rod that produced the red beam?.............that is the actual laser device), that is capable of receiving extremly high level electrical pulsses, without burning up, or simply not working at all.

So the problem is not in the energy sources that are used to operate the electronics within the system, nor the energy required to supply through the electronics the required high energy pulse that then excites the laser element to produce the beam.
The problem is as stated, coming up with a laser element that can handle the required imput energy levels then produce a required outpout beam of a given energy and frequency.
Don't know how else to state the problem involved here with out getting technical.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I have this vision of the laser first vaporizing the mortar round (we could've used this in Vietnam), and then using an airborne mirror as a relay to vaporize the guy firing the mortar...

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"Well radar will not recognize IFF signal."

Huh? You mind explaining this? Are you saying that IFF doesn't work at all?

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"I know they can built small nuclear reactors for subs and aircraft carriers, and I don't know how much small they can make nuclear reactors, but ? couldn't they build a small enough nuclear reactor not only provide electricity for the military base, and provide the power for the lasers ?"

Sure they can. All they need to do is get rid of that pesky radiation shielding.

[Marine_Uncle]

""Well radar will not recognize IFF signal."
Huh? You mind explaining this? Are you saying that IFF doesn't work at all?"

IFF is I believe a UHF frequency range radio signal. Planes are equiped with a transmitter and receiver. One sends a coded envelope of information that can identify the type plane, and allows for other aircraft that have the system on board to receive radio waves in the particular frequency and decode the info contain, and tell if the aircraft is a friendly or otherwise. Hence IFF (Identify Friendly or Foe).
Radar systems operate a frequencies hundreds of times higher , and send a sequence of short duration pulses out. If the pulses hit something that will reflect the signal, e.g. not absorb the signal pulses, the reflected pulses are bounced back toward the radar antenae, (received) processed and displayed on typically a CRT monitor as small areas on the screen. The aircraft's radar or a ground to air or ship to air radar, (all radars in essence) will not "understand" or be able to interpret the IFF signal simply because the radar is not designed to react to that type of signal information.

Think of it this way. A radar receiver would not understand what the information was within a TV microwave transmission right? It is a totally different type of energy signal both in the contained information as well as the frequencies and shape of the wave involved. If it was otherwise how could any radar system function properly. They are special types of very very high frequency very tightly "tuned" transmitters/receivers of energy well beyond the radio spectrum frequencies used in IFF and other lower frequency communications. Let me give one more example in case you are familiar with how radar systems work etc..
An example: you understand your TV set cannot pick up a lower frequency radio station signal right? It is not designed to receive and process signal information in the frequency spectrum. Same with radar verse UHF,VHF etc., systems. Hope this helps.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

IFF also works with ground-based systems. It can be attached to MTHEL very easily. Try again, please.

[Marine_Uncle]

"IFF also works with ground-based systems. It can be attached to MTHEL very easily. Try again, please."

Understand. One integrates IFF into the laser system.
Roger that. That was not the way earlier questions where posed, I just tried explain the difference between a radar system and some other type typical communications.

But roger that. Yep, simply integrate IFF into the system to tell the system to not lock on targets that match the radar acquired target if it matches same air space as the IFF.
Problem solved. Very good. End of problem.

[RemainCALM]

The problem with solid state lasers is that nobody has yet figured out how to make them powerful enough to shoot down artillery projectiles. In order to ignite a target, a laser must produce at least 100 kilowatts of power. So far, only one fourth that power has been reached in the laboratory. OK, I'm unencumbered by knowledge on this subject, so I can speak freely! If one laser can produce 25 kilowatts, and you need 100 kilowatts, why not use 4 laser elements synched together. Seems to me the lasers don't even have to be located in the same physical space, they just need to shoot at and hit accurately the same point in space/time.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Would a element made of diamonds work ?
Would the element have to withstand both heat and energy pulses, and still remain reliable, and won't fail in a critical time in need ?
I guess the element would have to be a very hard substance, and be able to transfer a very highly concentrated beam of light, and do it efficiently.