Still Waters Posted January 5, 2017 #1 Share Posted January 5, 2017 The UK Ministry of Defence has officially awarded a £30m contract to produce a prototype laser weapon. The aim is to see whether "directed energy" technology could benefit the armed forces, and is to culminate in a demonstration of the system in 2019. The contract was picked up by a consortium of European defence firms. The prototype will be assessed on how it picks up and tracks targets at different distances and in varied weather conditions over land and water. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38510344 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted January 5, 2017 #2 Share Posted January 5, 2017 That would be awesome! Seems that, according to the article, sufficiently high-powered and stable airborne lasers are finally coming of age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraldnewfie Posted January 5, 2017 #3 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Aliens gonna have a good challenge when they arrive if this goes good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troublehalf Posted January 5, 2017 #4 Share Posted January 5, 2017 2 hours ago, pallidin said: That would be awesome! Seems that, according to the article, sufficiently high-powered and stable airborne lasers are finally coming of age. Would be neat, the problem is this is a rather small contract, only £30m. Secondly, there isn't a specific weapon being designed. We don't know if it's for aircraft, naval vessels, ground vehicles or even handheld. I know the Chinese have a handheld laser (granted, it can't 'burn' anything, but it's powerful enough to blind a human and damage drones optics, though this is also a 'we use the flamethrower for terrain clearing' type situation, as blinding laser weapons are banned iirc) so it is theoretically feasible they're working on their own. Alas, legally, such weapons will only be able to be used to destroy non-organic targets. Which unfortunately means they can't be used against enemy aircraft or tanks or whatever. I'm pretty sure they'll be used as point defence systems on aircraft and naval vessels. The progress of 'railgun' weapons has made the idea of a giant laser weapon unrealistic. The power requirements are probably the same, except a railgun isn't affected by adverse weather conditions (theoretically, fog and heavy rain will prevent a laser from firing at optimum efficiency, which is obviously why the UK is testing such a thing) and a railgun can fire a wide-range of munitions. The dream is for a handheld railgun rifle. From that point on, we'll be limited by durable and cheap ammunition, resulting in the need to find such a material in order to make a 'more powerful' rifle. After that, we're limited by the physics of the Earth. Stuff will just disintegrate or hit a terminal velocity on the planet when fired. The likely result is they test if this is worthwhile then sell the research to the USA who will make changes to a new weapon system and sell it to the UK. UK unfortunately doesn't seem interested in designing everything itself these days (and when it does, it goes wrong, see SA80 for example). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highdesert50 Posted January 5, 2017 #5 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Interesting how much time and money we spend on fear. One has to wonder what would occur if we were to spend a commensurate amount on educating people to a simple understanding of empathy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taniwha Posted January 6, 2017 #6 Share Posted January 6, 2017 1 hour ago, highdesert50 said: Interesting how much time and money we spend on fear. Fight fear with fear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brlesq1 Posted January 6, 2017 #7 Share Posted January 6, 2017 Are photon torpedoes next? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Monk Posted January 6, 2017 #8 Share Posted January 6, 2017 The Royal Navy used laser weapons in the Falklands War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Monk Posted January 6, 2017 #9 Share Posted January 6, 2017 16 hours ago, Troublehalf said: UK unfortunately doesn't seem interested in designing everything itself these days Apart from every Royal Navy ship and countless other military apparatus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted January 6, 2017 #10 Share Posted January 6, 2017 22 hours ago, geraldnewfie said: Aliens gonna have a good challenge when they arrive if this goes good Well, if I were part of a highly advanced alien race that was here to conquer us, I'd take out anything in orbit first. Then land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROGER Posted January 7, 2017 #11 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Im wondering if mounting such a device on the ISS or a satellite could be used to clear space debris ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habitat Posted January 7, 2017 #12 Share Posted January 7, 2017 37 minutes ago, ROGER said: Im wondering if mounting such a device on the ISS or a satellite could be used to clear space debris ? You mean turn a million pieces of junk into a billion ? Probably yes ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troublehalf Posted January 11, 2017 #13 Share Posted January 11, 2017 On 06/01/2017 at 2:38 PM, Black Monk said: Apart from every Royal Navy ship and countless other military apparatus. I didn't say they didn't do any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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