Posted on 03/14/2008 7:03:09 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Yeah, I exaggerated somewhat. :)
The reason the military would prefer to use solid state lasers is that they will be run off of the electricity generated by the engine of the vehicle it is mounted on. Fighters, bombers, helicopters, humvees, naval ships, APCs, tanks and so on all could be fitted with solid state laser weapons systems for defense or offense. In theory, as long as the battery is charged and the engine is running, the laser’s “magazine” is always full; it can’t run out of ammo. That’s one major advantage.
The laser would be powered by the JSF’s turbine engine. As long as it’s in flight, the weapon is charged and ready. There is a cooling system (built into the design of the weapon) and some parts need to be replaced from time to time but such a replacement, from what I’ve read, would be a very simple matter of just swapping the parts out.
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