Forest Green
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Solid State Laser News
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Interesting for applications in space, but not in the atmosphere since such small masses would either slow down very quickly or vaporize in the atmosphere at those speeds due to friction and aero-heating.
Forest Green
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Unless nanotechnology allows them to withstand very high temperatures for short periods. At 4,500km/s, resistance only needs to last ~0.022s
New record set for world's most heat resistant material | Imperial News | Imperial College London
Researchers have discovered that tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide materials can withstand scorching temperatures of nearly 4000 degrees Celsius.
www.imperial.ac.uk
Light alone can levitate some substances
www.nature.com
I was thinking multiple beams--so as to pantograph a "sky cursor" around.
Optics
hackaday.com
hackaday.com
Record power
Light-induced levitation of ultralight carbon aerogels via temperature control - Scientific Reports
We demonstrate that ultralight carbon aerogels with skeletal densities lesser than the air density can levitate in air, based on Archimedes' principle, when heated with light. Porous materials, such as aerogels, facilitate the fabrication of materials with density less than that of air. However...
www.nature.com
I was thinking multiple beams--so as to pantograph a "sky cursor" around.
Optics
On Sensory Weaver Building
What is a sensory weaver? [Curiosiate] tells us: “A device which takes sensory data feeds in and converts it in various ways on the body as information streams as though a native sensory inpu…
New Camera Does Realtime Holographic Capture, No Coherent Light Required
Holography is about capturing 3D data from a scene, and being able to reconstruct that scene — preferably in high fidelity. Holography is not a new idea, but engaging in it is not exactly a p…
Record power
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Perhaps.Unless nanotechnology allows them to withstand very high temperatures for short periods. At 4,500km/s, resistance only needs to last ~0.022s
New record set for world's most heat resistant material | Imperial News | Imperial College London
Researchers have discovered that tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide materials can withstand scorching temperatures of nearly 4000 degrees Celsius.
However, the 4500 km/s velocity was for the 0.0001 g projectiles, which would be too small and lightweight to maintain speed and would quickly slow down in the atmosphere before heating up enough to vaporize.
Furthermore, the article talks about withstanding heating for over Mach 5 speed, which is only 1.7 km/s. They mention possible use for leaving and re-entering the atmosphere in space travel. The velocity to reach low earth orbit or re-enter from low earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s. Those velocities are far below the 100 km/s to 4500 km/s velocities you were speculating about with 0.2 g to 0.0001 g projectiles, respectively.
Perhaps, the new materials could reduce the size and mass necessary to survive the heating for velocities on the order of tens of km/s from about centimeters diameter and tens of grams mass to millimeters diameter and tens of milligrams mass, which might be heavy enough to not slow down too much in the atmosphere.
Another option might be to design the projectile such that the core can withstand the very high temperatures and have an outer layer that starts vaporizing at a slightly lower temperature than the core material so that in flight through the atmosphere to the target, the outer layer generates a plasma sheath around the front of the projectile. Perhaps that plasma sheath around the front of the projectile would enhance the lethality over just the impact of the projectile.
By the way, thermal time constants are usually on the order of milliseconds, so 0.022 s = 22 ms is probably too long a time to expect the tiny 0.0001 g projectile to survive the heating at 4500 km/s, but the point is moot since such a small low mass projectile would likely slow down very rapidly due to the atmospheric friction if it did not vaporize.
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Interesting idea.Light alone can levitate some substances
Light-induced levitation of ultralight carbon aerogels via temperature control - Scientific Reports
We demonstrate that ultralight carbon aerogels with skeletal densities lesser than the air density can levitate in air, based on Archimedes' principle, when heated with light. Porous materials, such as aerogels, facilitate the fabrication of materials with density less than that of air. However...
I was thinking multiple beams--so as to pantograph a "sky cursor" around.
By heating the whole aerogel "puck" you can only control its vertical motion because the buoyant force is always upward. Perhaps with multiple beams with spot sizes at the aerogel puck that are smaller than the diameter of the aerogel puck, you could make one part heat up more than another part to tilt the puck and induce a lateral component to the motion, but you might only be able to set it rotating instead of translating laterally, but perhaps the right aerodynamic shape of the puck might enable tilting it to generate lateral translation instead of rotation.
Also, in the lab setup they did not have to contend with winds and air currents which can flow vertically as well as horizontally in the open air where a "sky cursor" would be operated. The wind and air currents might produce vertical and horizontal forces that overcome the buoyant forces generated by the beam heating and carry away such a lightweight structure. In addition, convective cooling from the airflow around the puck due to winds and air currents may necessitate using more power for the heating beams than would be required under static air conditions.
What would be the advantage of such a system over using a small radio controlled quad copter with a laser or other light beam reflecting off of it to act as a sky cursor? Drawing on a touch screen or using a joystick or other motion controller could generate the control signals to synchronize the pointing of the light beam and the motion of the quad copter to move in synchrony such that the light beam is always pointing at the quad copter and both follow the path the user designates with the controller.
Forest Green
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Cool video.
It took a dwell time of about 20 seconds to disrupt the drone. That does not bode well for the use of CLaWS to defend against a swarm of drones. According to https://defence-industry.eu/boeing-...ystem-clws-successfully-downs-group-3-drones/ , the output power is only 5 kW, so it is not too surprising that such a long dwell time was required.
If total energy on target were the only factor (I know it isn't, but it is a major factor), then to get the dwell time down to a couple of seconds or so to be practical against multiple targets such as in a drone swarm, would required at least 50 kW or so of laser output power. Other factors not considered in this simple scaling might drive that laser output power up by a factor of two or three, so that a range of 50 kW to 150 kW laser output power may be required to be effective against swarms of drones.
Forest Green
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I guess it might disrupt the drones feed/vision much earlier though. Shame we can't see it from the drone operator's persepective.
Probably if the drone's vision system has the laser source in its field-of-view, but not necessarily if the laser is attacking the drone from the side or rear of the drone.
Also, it depends on the waveband of the drone's vision system. If the drone's vision system operates in the visible, mid-infrared or far infrared, then it is relatively easy to make a filter that passes light in the drone's operational band and reflects light in the operational band of the laser, which for currently fielded weapon lasers are wavelengths in the near infrared to short wavelength infrared, with the exception of laser dazzlers, which usually operate in the visible band, or sometimes in both the near or short wave infrared and visible bands.
Although it is straight forward to add an optical frequency shifter to the laser to get output in another wave band, the optical output power in the new band will be about 30% to 60% lower depending on the starting and ending wavelengths and the type of optical frequency shifting device used.
Even with a protection filter, the HEL may destroy the protection filter or other optical or electrical components of the drone's vision system, but not necessarily in any less dwell time than for a hard body kill.
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I was thinking that if it aimed for the props rather than the CoM, it might down it quicker.
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Anti-Drone System Concept Revealed - Defense Advancement
Laser Photonics Corporation and Fonon Technologies have released a visual concept of the Laser Shield Anti-Drone System (LSAD) – a joint development by the two companies to create a laser defense system for use against unauthorized drone activity. Following the successful early testing of...
www.defenseadvancement.com
I'm not sure since some of the laser energy would be transmitted through the spaces between the propeller blades depending on aspect angle, and convective cooling by the air flow across the spinning blades may dissipate some to the energy deposited by the laser beam causing the temperature to rise more slowly in the props than other parts of the drone. On the other hand, the materials that the props are made of may melt at a lower temperature than other materials in other places on the drone.
I would expect that the scientists and engineers working on the demo would have tested the laser on various parts of the same model drones to find the most vulnerable spots prior to the demo so they could target those during the demo. Anyway, I would have included such pre-demo testing in the development and testing plan if I had been the project leader.
A lot of marketing verbiage in that article, but no actual technical description of the system concept.Anti-Drone System Concept Revealed - Defense Advancement
Laser Photonics Corporation and Fonon Technologies have released a visual concept of the Laser Shield Anti-Drone System (LSAD) – a joint development by the two companies to create a laser defense system for use against unauthorized drone activity. Following the successful early testing of...
It's not clear if the beams overlaid on the photo in the article represent multiple simultaneous beams or positions of a single beam as the transmitter optics scan it around.
No laser output power is given in the article.
Here is a link to an article that has a video illustrating the concept of operations: https://laserphotonics.com/news/pre...a5I7i2xf5gyEEsvdk5ryTfDNeJiM32H-px68yvhw_yIIu
The video shows multiple beams pointed upward to act like a barrier that destroys drones flying through a beam. The drones are destroyed in transit through the beams, in under a second or two. These devices would need to be deployed around the target being protected at some standoff distance. Still no details on the required laser power output for each laser beam.
No technical details at this site either: https://www.fonon.us/products/laser-shield-anti-drone-defense-system But it does have lots of marketing photos and verbiage.
Quite an electron beam
These Phys.org news reports can be so frustrating because they leave out important details. In this article about the most powerful electron beam, the actual peak power level achieved is not stated.
From the paper that the news report is based on: In this Letter we report on the experimental generation of high energy (10 GeV), ultra-short (fs-duration), ultra-high current (∼ 0.1 MA), petawatt peak power electron beams in a particle accelerator.
Forest Green
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You don't actually need that much energy to yield petawatt power over the duration of femtoseconds
True. For a rectangular pulse of 1 fs, 1 J of energy produces a peak power of 1 PW.
Note that when the paper says 'high energy (10 GeV)' it is talking about the energy of each of the accelerated electrons traveling at about 99% the speed of light in a vacuum. In particle physics, a particle energy exceeding about 1 GeV is considered 'high energy.' 10 GeV equals 1.602E-09 J, so in a 10 GeV electron pulse of 1 J total energy, there are about 624 million 10 GeV electrons.
A "solid" laser?
Electrons gone wild
A plasma oddity
Here 'Shadowgraphy' shows something the shades of Azathoth
For the first time, scientists have 'photographed' a rare plasma instability, where high-energy electron beams form into spaghetti-like filaments.
Paging Benton Quest!
You get the paint--I'll get the Powder of Ibn Ghazi.
Getting back to a sky cursor—I might get a blob from this:
Then accelerate that packet with a bigger Marauder just to get it going—then use intersecting beams.
Best when calm.
Electrons gone wild
A plasma oddity
Here 'Shadowgraphy' shows something the shades of Azathoth
For the first time, scientists have 'photographed' a rare plasma instability, where high-energy electron beams form into spaghetti-like filaments.
Paging Benton Quest!
You get the paint--I'll get the Powder of Ibn Ghazi.
Getting back to a sky cursor—I might get a blob from this:
Then accelerate that packet with a bigger Marauder just to get it going—then use intersecting beams.
Best when calm.
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Laser beamed energy for in-flight power generation:
View: https://youtu.be/vMZhvQo8m8w?si=HYqX6cibAvlFPPOu
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Forest Green
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Army awards HII's tech division contract to develop high-energy laser - Breaking Defense
The weapon is envisioned to protect Army bases and vehicles from small- to medium-sized drones.
breakingdefense.com
I couldn't help laughing at the following typo in the article: "If successful, the technology would be transitioned into the Army’s Program Executive Office for Missies and Space."Army awards HII's tech division contract to develop high-energy laser - Breaking Defense
The weapon is envisioned to protect Army bases and vehicles from small- to medium-sized drones.
Now, that's a government office that needs to be investigated by DOGE!
The article does not give any technical details on the laser weapon or on who is building the laser.Army awards HII's tech division contract to develop high-energy laser - Breaking Defense
The weapon is envisioned to protect Army bases and vehicles from small- to medium-sized drones.
Since HII is the builder of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including the USS Preble which carries the Lockheed Martin HELIOS laser system, and the builder of the entire San Antonio class of ships, including the USS Portland LPD-27 which carries the Northrop Grumman Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD), I am guessing that HII may have Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and perhaps other companies, compete to provide the laser weapon system for this new contract, with HII providing the system integration and operator control interfaces, since I have not seen any indication that HII has its own in-house HEL development.
Note that when it spun off as a new company in 2011, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) comprised Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding businesses.
I found an article at https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/25/us_army_laser_weapon/ which states "HII's system is being designed to take out drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds (about 600 kg), flying at speeds of up to 250 knots (463 kph), and operating at altitudes as high as 18,000 feet (5,500 m) above sea level - classified as "group 3" unmanned aerial systems (UAS)...
RCCTO wants sensor and laser lethality characterization testing in the first quarter of FY2025, a lab demo in Q2 FY25, an integrated system field test in Q3, and a Soldier Touch Point event in Q1 FY26 - which kicks off in October 2025. The program's goal is to pick a prime contractor for production in the first quarter of FY26, with a potential transition to producing up to 20 laser weapon systems by the third quarter of FY26 under a separate Production OTA award...
The Army has had laser weapons capable of neutralizing unmanned aircraft since 2022 in the form of BlueHalo's LOCUST system developed through the Laser Technology Research Development and Optimization (LARDO) program.
The current LOCUST system delivers "hard kills" with a 20-kilowatt beam, meaning it can physically destroy drones mid-flight. The Army signed another contract with BlueHalo last year to develop advanced directed energy prototypes with increased automation, efficiency, ruggedization, and improvements in size, weight, and power.
Lockheed Martin also demonstrated its own vehicle-mounted 50 kW laser system way back in 2023, highlighting the Army's growing list of laser zapper projects and raising questions about how - or if - they're meant to complement each other.
With HII declining to explain how its weapon system differed, the only available clue comes from the solicitation, in which the RCCTO mentions it wants "to expedite the development and field testing of a producible and sustainable laser weapon system," suggesting rapid prototyping and fielding is the objective."
Forest Green
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It was probably DOGE that made them omit the 'l' to save ink.I couldn't help laughing at the following typo in the article: "If successful, the technology would be transitioned into the Army’s Program Executive Office for Missies and Space."
Now, that's a government office that needs to be investigated by DOGE!
Forest Green
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UK rushes naval laser weapon, as major tank upgrade hits snag
The British government in its Spring Statement in March announced plans to spend at least 10% of the Ministry of Defence equipment budget on new tech.
www.defensenews.com
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