Navel Laser Weapons

This tells us that the naval program is on the way to been real.  The advantages are overwhelming for close in support.  It provides an automatic shield that any incoming projectile must penetrate.  An attack is forced to deliver overwhelming volume and then actually hit the target.

With the likely development of direct fusion power technology we have a potentially compact weapon system.

Such a system could be lofted into space and used as a platform to suppress any air force or adventurer.  It certainly could be used there to prevent  a missile launch.  This was a star-wars weapon system that was less than thirty years before its time.

Summary of lasers for weapons

APRIL 08, 2011

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/summary-of-lasers-for-weapons.html

NavyShipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile Defense: Background and Issuesfor Congress (53 pages)

Department of Defense (DOD) development work on high-energy militarylasers, which has been underway for decades, has reached the point where laserscapable of countering certain surface and air targets at ranges of about a milecould be made ready for installation on Navy surfaceships over the next few years. More powerful shipboard lasers, which couldbecome ready for installation in subsequent years, could provide Navy surfaceships with an ability to counter a wider range of surface and air targets atranges of up to about 10 miles. These more powerful lasers might, among otherthings, provide Navy surface ships with a terminal-defense capability againstcertain ballistic missiles, including the anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)that Chinais believed to be developing.

The Navy and DOD are developing three principal types of lasers for potentialuse on Navy surface ships—fiber solid state lasers (SSLs), slab SSLs, and freeelectron lasers (FELs). The Navy’s fiber SSL prototype demonstrator is calledthe Laser Weapon System (LaWS). Among DOD’s multiple efforts to develop slabSSLs for military use is the Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD), a prototypelaser weapon developed as a rapid demonstration project. The Navy has developeda lower-power FEL prototype and is now developing a prototype with scaled-uppower. These lasers differ in terms of their relative merits as potentialshipboard weapons.

For purposes of this report, the term “short range” generally refers to rangesof one or two nautical miles, while references to longer ranges or extendedranges refer to ranges of up to about 10 nautical miles. Lasers are one type ofdirected energy weapon (DEW); other DEWs include microwave weapons andmillimeter wave weapons.

The Navy recently succeeded in using a ship based laser to disablea small boat.


 

Advantages

* Shipboard lasers could counter surface, air, and ballistic missile targets ata low marginal cost per shot. The shipboard fuel needed to generate theelectricity for firing an electrically powered laser would cost less than adollar per shot (some sources express the cost in pennies per shot). Incontrast, the Navy’s short-range air-defense interceptor missiles cost roughly$800,000 to $1.4 million each, and its longer-range air- and missile defenseinterceptor missiles cost several million dollars each

* Deep magazine. Navy surface ships can carry finite numbers of interceptor
missiles in their missile launch tubes. In contrast, an electrically poweredlaser can be fired again and again, as long as the ship has fuel to generateelectricity (and sufficient cooling capacity to remove waste heat fromthe laser).

* Fast engagement times.

* Ability to counter radically maneuvering air targets.

* Precision engagement and reduced risk of certain kinds of collateraldamage

in port areas.

* Additional uses; graduated responses.

Limitations

* Line of sight.

* Atmospheric absorption, scattering, and turbulence; not an all-weathersolution.

* Thermal blooming. A laser that continues firing in the same exactdirection for a certain amount of time can heat up the air it is passingthrough, which in turn can defocus the laser beam, reducing its ability todisable the intended target.

* Saturation attacks. Since a laser can attack only one target at atime, requires several seconds to disable it, and several more seconds to beredirected to the next target, a laser can disable only so many targets withina given period of time. A mitigating solution is to install more than onelaser.

* Hardened targets and countermeasures. Less-powerful lasers—that is,lasers with beam powers measured in kilowatts (kW) rather than megawatts(MW)—can have less effectiveness against targets that incorporate shielding,ablative material, or highly reflective surfaces, or that rotate rapidly

* Risk of collateral damage to aircraft andsatellites.

Required Laser Power Levels for Countering Targets

A laser’s ability to disable a target depends in large part on the power andbeam quality of its light beam. The power of the light beam is measured inkilowatts (kW) or megawatts (MW). Beam quality (BQ) is a measure of how wellfocused the beam is.

 Additional factors affecting alaser’s ability to disable a target include:

• atmospheric absorption, scattering, and turbulence,
• jitter—the degree to which the spot of laser light jumps around on thesurface of the target due to vibration or other movement of the laser system,and
• target design features, which can affect a target’s susceptibility to laserdamage.

The following conclusions might be drawn from the table regarding approximatelaser power levels needed to affect certain targets:

• Lasers with a power level of about 10 kW might be able to counter some UAVsat short range, particularly “soft” UAVs (i.e., those with design features thatmake them particularly susceptible to laser damage).

• Lasers with power levels in the tens of kilowatts could have more capabilityfor countering UAVs, and could counter at least some small boats as well.

• Lasers with a power level of about 100 kW would have a greater ability forcountering UAVs and small boats, as well as some capability for counteringrockets, artillery, and mortars.

• Lasers with power levels in the hundreds of kilowatts could have greaterability for countering targets mentioned above, and could also counter mannedaircraft and some missiles.

• Lasers with power levels in the megawatts could have greater ability forcountering targets mentioned above—including supersonic ASCMs and ballisticmissiles—at ranges of up to about 10 nautical miles

In addition to the points above, one Navy briefing stated that lasers withpower levels above 300 kW could permit a ship to defend not only itself, butother ships in the area as well (a capability referred to as area defense orescort operations or battle group operations).

Navy Surface Fleet’s Generalized Vision for Shipboard Lasers

This generalized vision can be summarized as follows (text based on a
Navy briefing slide):

Current Navy—LaWs:

• 50 kw to 100 kW fiber laser with a low beam quality (BQ) and a beamdirector with a diameter of about 60 cm (about 23.6 inches);

• short-range operations against targets such as EO sensors, smallboats, UAVs; RAM; and man-portable air defense systems (or MANPADs—shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles);
• potential IOC around FY2017;

Next Navy:

• 100 kW laser with a BQ of about 2 and use of adaptive optics;
• Extended-range operations against targets such as EO sensors, small boats,UAVs, RAM, and MANPADs, as well as ASCMs that are flying on a crossing path(rather than at the ship);

Navy After Next—FEL:

• 1 MW FEL laser using a beam director with a diameter of more than 1meter (more than about 39 inches);

• Self-defense operations against transonic and supersonic/highly maneuverableanti-ship missiles, and ballistic missiles.