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| The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory. U.S. Navy / John F. Williams |
But if lasers are going to sea then the Chinese just got put in a hurt locker. Every tactic that they've picked up from the Russians on how to destroy a Carrier Battle Group just got shit canned.
What makes you think that, salvo of supersonic sea skiming missiles will still sink any CBG
ReplyDeletelasers coupled with our other active defense systems will render such an attack almost impossible. you're talking about a system that fires at the speed of light! there are only two ways that you could be overwhelmed. if you followed legacy practice and mounted only two systems aboard your ships or you didn't have enough power to make it through an engagement. i could see no less than four of these systems aboard a major combatant, several more perhaps many more on a nuclear powered escort and one ship could eradicate an aerial attack.
Deleteok, not right now, BUT....
DeleteIn 10 or 15 years from now, when C.I.W.S. has a laser based equivalent, it really wont matter how many are in a salvo, or swarm, this thing is light speed, quicker than any sea skimming hyper-sonic missile. remember, they mostly still have a "pop up" phase.
effective ranges would extend as far as radar can track..... kills would be in fractions of a second, or worst case 10-20 secs for first gen equipment.
when lasers are on warships then combat will change. it will be truly the age of the nerd. we might not even have manned warships or maybe a mother ship commanding swarms of smaller patrol ships that are capable of destroying aircraft, missiles and ships....plus if they can develop lasers that can penetrate water then you're looking at either the sub being king or the end of that platform.
Deletewhat will be interesting are the counter measures that will develop. can some kind of plasma shield be far behind? maybe electro magnetic? whatever the type it will be awesome!
For now lasers are to weak need to much time to burn trough missle airframe,they also depend on weather,that is why for now they are meant primarily to combat UAV's on the cheap whithout using expensive and onboard missle arsenal ,this laser works barely past CIWS range a Brhamos type anti ship missle moves at cca 1000 yards per second future versions could move twice as fast ,so exposure time is becoming smaller all the time. Carrier are new battle ships ,well past their zenith. Submarine force is the future.
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLkpcHavZE
How does it perform in fog or low-visibility/sea-spray conditions? Clouds? Smoke?
ReplyDeleteHow long does it take to track and destroy each incoming missile? If it takes more than a couple of seconds, then swarm attacks are still feasible.
It is exciting, though, I just hope the Chinese aren't hacking Lawrence-Livermore servers and downloading plans.
Electro-Magnetic rail guns, lasers, etc. will revolutionize our Navy....provided we can afford them.
detection hasn't been a problem with Aegis, its been the decision to fire being given too late for legacy weapons to react in time. that can be solved by putting the system on automatic but it can be problematic in crowded sea space...think Israeli Corvette getting sunk and the US Frigate that downed a Iranian airliner while fighting speedboats.
Deletethink about this though. a rail gun could theoretically be stationed on the California coast and take down a Chinese carrier in its port. hell you put enough force behind a 1000 pound slab of concrete and it could equal an atomic blast.
DeleteNot in our lifetimes. The energy needed to get a half-ton slab of concrete moving that fast would cause a blackout in most of California (not necessarily a bad thing) and the concrete slab would disintegrate inflight because of the force with which it would be hitting air. Kinda like the problem with getting bullets past a couple thousand FPS. Also, the sonic booms associated with a firing, would on land and near population centers would be a major problem. It woul be better to put KEWs into geo-sych orbit over the pacific.. That would make any railgun look like a water pistol.
DeleteAs lasers get more powerful, their aim will also get better.
ReplyDeleteInstead of trying to burn through the airframe, they will only need to compromise a control surface to force the missile out of control.
This will force the missiles to be designed with a lifting body and TVC control schema.
In my opinion Solomon, you're way too excited about this.
ReplyDeleteHaving ONE laser is going to necessarily stop say 5 to 10 missiles. It's going to take time for the laser to burn through whatever protection so it can actually disable whatever is guiding the incoming threat.
Here's what I actually expect to happen. Flesh is much softer than steel. These are fun to talk about for the Navy shooting down missiles or even enemy jets, but wait till they start shooting these at soldiers/marines. Nothing like having your retinas burned out in a flash (no pun intended).
Blinding Weapons are a Geneva Convention violation
ReplyDeleteThey were blinding the missile it has no eyeballs to burn it does have seeky weeky capability that will be affected by a lase.
DeleteAs for troops aim at their gear it's in the same weapons class as a bullet or missile if ya hit their eyes well, it sucks to be them.
Doesn't full MOPP include flash glasses for nukes/lasers?
Hate to burst your bubble Sol, but it's less than 100kW, and so is only good for blinding sensors and killing small, slowing flying UAVs and motorboats in close.
ReplyDeleteThe really useful stuff (i.e. can burn through 20ft of steel per second) is in the mW class. Only when you get to that level will it be effective against threats like ASMs or aircraft.
They haven't even gotten this one integrated into the ship's power supply - it runs off its own source and occupies the whole flight deck.
In summary, a great experiment, and good first step on the road to practical laser installations on warships, but very, very far from affecting Chinese or Russian attack plans.
Might I recommend http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R41526.pdf as a good primer for where the tech is right now, and what's going on.
dude i'm pumped up about future possibilities not current capabilities.
DeleteThe laser definitely seems like the future to me. All the talk about it costing more to shoot down a missile than to build the missile gets turned on its head and suddenly the Chinese are the ones with a highly uneconomical strategy.
ReplyDeleteBut there's another new system going to sea now that seems just as interesting to me. The Navy just started at sea testing on a CVN of an anti-torpedo torpedo. Given the hype about the Chinese submarine fleet, this should knock out another leg of their anti-access strategy. (http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=72806)