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from the one-eyed-sharks-going-pew-pew-pew? dept.
U.S. Army gets one step closer to laser gun system:
Last week, the Assistant Secretary of the Army – Acquisition, Logistics & Technology has announced that the U.S. Army is one step closer to delivering laser weapons to Soldiers with the recent arrival of two Stryker vehicles in Huntsville, Ala.
[The] Assistant Secretary Facebook account made the post regarding Directed Energy Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) with a 50 kW-class laser integrated onto a Stryker platform. The government-industry team is integrating directed energy capabilities onto the platforms, in preparation for the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office DE-MSHORAD combat shoot-off next year, according to the message.
“DE-MSHORAD will protect Divisions and Brigade Combat Teams from unmanned aerial systems, rotary-wing aircraft, and rocket, artillery and mortar threats,” the message added.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @10:54PM (2 children)
Trump can order the army to shoot Democrats with the laser gun until there are enough dead ones that he wins the election.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @10:59PM (1 child)
Won't work. Dead Democrats still vote... check out Chicago elections for the past 150 years or so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02 2020, @06:43AM
Honest question: If the democrat mailed in his ballet before he was murdered does his vote still count?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2020, @11:20PM (21 children)
Haven't seen a laser that could do indirect fire yet. Are they going to use mirrors?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday October 01 2020, @11:29PM (6 children)
Mirrors can't reflect 100% of photons. They will melt quickly if a strong enough laser hits them. The laser wielder (or the computer controlling it) also has the choice of... not aiming at the mirrors. Is every tank, ship, and soldier going to be covered completely with mirrors?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 02 2020, @12:40AM (1 child)
I believe you will find that fog, smoke or dust will be enough.
With their logarithmic response, human eyes are better in distinguishing and targeting (with classic kinetic projectiles) the faint silhouettes that a light beam will have troubles to get through.
Good luck, guys, paying zillions for fancy toys easily defeated by conventional means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Friday October 02 2020, @01:15AM
https://www.army.mil/article/195650/army_developing_lasers_that_pierce_fog_dust_to_destroy_targets [army.mil]
https://newatlas.com/laser-weapons-future-warfare/52801/ [newatlas.com]
https://www.evaluationengineering.com/instrumentation/article/13010708/can-laser-weapons-operate-in-bad-weather [evaluationengineering.com]
Increasing the power of the laser can curb that, and they also claim that adaptive optics can help.
The scattering also doesn't happen in a vacuum (grin). A high power laser will affect the path it's traveling along, heating the air.
Laser weapons are expensive but they are cheap to fire. You don't want to be on the wrong end of a 100 kW... 300 kW... or 1 MW laser weapon, even if you have the smoke machine turned on.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 02 2020, @02:05AM (1 child)
I think you misunderstood the question. He sarcastically asks if mirrors can be used to redirect the laser to hit the backside of a hill, or down into a valley, or behind a building. "Indirect" fire.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday October 02 2020, @05:38AM
I think tfa is referring to shooting down incoming indirect fire, not taking out the enemy indirect fire system.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02 2020, @02:12AM (1 child)
And you all thought the aluminum foil hats were silly! Well who's burning in the reflected laser beams now, huh‽
(and you don't like the interrobang! Well who's using it now, huh‽)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Acabatag on Friday October 02 2020, @02:45AM
So, how did that molten aluminum feel when it ran down the back of your neck?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 01 2020, @11:34PM (3 children)
I should have read that more carefully.
Tens of kilowatt or megawatt lasers aren't going to play well with mirrors.
Also, the Air Force is looking to put lasers on planes, possibly with the same power (50 kW). Death from above.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 02 2020, @12:49AM (2 children)
But an ablative armor will laugh at your shots.
I have reasons to think a simple armor of burnt toast slices [youtube.com] will function quite well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday October 02 2020, @06:08AM (1 child)
but some people believe smelling burnt toast means something! [healthline.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday October 02 2020, @06:14AM
I wouldn't know, I'm an old smoker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 5, Informative) by dltaylor on Friday October 02 2020, @01:29AM (3 children)
I know we aren't supposed to read any actual articles, but, at least, read the summary before making ignorant comments.
The key words are "protect" and "from", The laser is presumably intended to hit INCOMING rocket, mortar, and artillery rounds. I will have to run some numbers, but that may still be wishful thinking. The time it takes to acquire the possible threat, determine if it is a real threat, mechanically align the system to an intercept vector, charge and fire has to be compared to the remaining flight time of the projectile. THEN you can talk about projectile counter-measures such as ablative shells.
Of course, if the enemy is sophisticated, using terminally guided munitions, they identify the large, expensive (therefore rare) laser-equipped Stryker, overwhelm it with multiple, simultaneous projectiles and then go back to business. Oh, and terminally-guided projectiles may not follow classic, mostly parabolic, flight paths. They could spiral in, for example, complicating the firing vector calculations.
Read any of the books in the "Hammer's Slammers" series, too.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 02 2020, @02:08AM
Ooooh! Modded up just for mentioning the Slammers!! ;^)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday October 02 2020, @10:02AM (1 child)
> terminally-guided projectiles may not follow classic, mostly parabolic, flight paths. They could spiral in, for example, complicating the firing vector calculations.
It isn't terribly difficult to track even rather fast moving projectiles. The whole point of using a laser is that it's point and click (as oppposed to missile defenses where you have to predict an intercept trajectory).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02 2020, @12:22PM
Yes it's a near instantaneous time on target beam, but unless it's of a power in the megawatt range or greater, it's not going to be a case of 'one pew-pew and you're dead'. The fire control system still has to track the inbound projectile, pick a 'weak spot' on said projectile, then maintain the beam on said 'weak point', so it still has to predict an intercept trajectory to do so, arguably it has to be capable of predicting it more precisely than that required for a missile intercept (get within X feet of target and blow the fecker up)...and I've got to wonder how effective this system would be against rapidly birling projectiles...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 02 2020, @02:02AM (5 children)
That seems a silly question at first glance. But, the Navy is working hard on rail guns to replace traditional guns. So, indirect fire becomes a pretty important question. A ship with a laser and a railgun is going to have a tough time hitting anything on the backside of a hill, unless the hill is over the horizon. British commonwealth nations have traditionally put mortars on their destroyers, but the US doesn't. It would appear that the Navy needs to retain traditional guns, or use missiles for indirect fire. The problems with missiles are, they're expensive, and no ship can carry as many missiles as it can ammo for guns.
For clarification - many Naval guns do have limited ability to do some indirect fire. It's nowhere near as capable as a mortar, but limited ability is better than no ability.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Touché) by darkfeline on Friday October 02 2020, @05:57AM (2 children)
> A ship with a laser and a railgun is going to have a tough time hitting anything on the backside of a hill
You have no imagination. Just shoot through the hill.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 02 2020, @10:52AM (1 child)
That is a definite possibility, but maybe not the most effective and reliable in all circumstances. It would be even less effective and reliable if the target is mobile.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday October 03 2020, @02:29AM
No problem. After a few tries, there will be no more hill.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1) by PaperNoodle on Friday October 02 2020, @07:41PM (1 child)
I am wondering if it is because if you want to hit a backside of the hill the navy will use bombers. With the number of aircraft carriers the US has it makes sense in that regard that they would consider that capability covered. Focusing on long range on a somewhat flat surface (ocean) seems more pertinent to the navy than trying to fill the role a bomber does quite nicely.
B3
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 02 2020, @08:54PM
Yes, naturally, if something were important enough to send a carrier task force.
I spent my Navy career on destroyers, independent of the big flotillas and task forces. We operated with the NATO Standing Naval Forces Atlantic, we operated alone and with other US destroyers. Calling in an air strike was never a real option.
I'm sure that you know carrier task forces are generally planned out, in some detail, months and even years ahead of deployment. The logistics demand a lot of preparation and lead time. A small destroyer squadron, or single destroyers, are your choices for quick reaction, rapid deployment circumstances. A destroyer can leave Norfolk, Va, and arrive on station anywhere off of Africa more quickly than the Pentagon can figure out how it is going to move a task force from Rota, Spain, to South Africa.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday October 02 2020, @02:52AM
Watch out for corner mirrors.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by nobita88 on Friday October 02 2020, @08:01AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02 2020, @07:15PM
so they were testing lasers on iraqis. blowing off arms and legs and whatnot.
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