What is it with the U.S. army and lasers? Just a few weeks ago an aircraft-mounted laser was in the news and now this:
“US army has laser guns in its sights”
“LASER weapons mounted on trucks could be ready to roll into battle within five years. This week Boeing won a $36 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to build the optics needed to track and focus lethal laser energy onto rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. The High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator will use a new solid-state laser powered by electricity from a truck-mounted diesel generator, rather than bulky and dangerous chemicals.”
Since laser weapons seem to be so popular today, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of laser weapons.
Pros: -When the targeting systems get better and better lasers will become extremely accurate as they hit their targets a lot faster than any projectile weapon. Basically the only way to avoid getting at least partially vaporized is to have some sort of armor surface that reflects most of the energy.
-No need for conventional ammo. All you need is electricity.
Cons: -Air plasma breakdown; “blooming”. When this happens lots of the laser’s energy is dispersed into the atmosphere. There are ways to counter this however, such as firing extremely short pulses.
-Shading of the target by evaporated target material. Again, lots of energy is lost when there’s a cloud of plasma in the way.
Currently lasers are very clumsy weapons but I’d imagine that in a couple of decades laser technology has improved enough for very powerful weapons indeed. And should humankind last long enough to do battle in space there’s no weapon like the laser.
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