Solid State Laser News

[Grey Havoc]

Still Unhappy With Progress On Directed Energy Weapons, SWO Boss Wants More Land Based Testing To Speed Use On Ships - Defense Daily

Laser and high-powered microwave systems are key to increasing magazine depth aboard ships to defend themselves and other assets, but the technologies are

www.defensedaily.com

 

[Forest Green]

Wonder if particle beams would be more effective?

 

[bcredman]

Still Unhappy With Progress On Directed Energy Weapons, SWO Boss Wants More Land Based Testing To Speed Use On Ships - Defense Daily

Laser and high-powered microwave systems are key to increasing magazine depth aboard ships to defend themselves and other assets, but the technologies are

www.defensedaily.com

The article at the above link is behind a pay wall. Here is a link to a similar article that is free to view: https://defensescoop.com/2024/01/09/navy-swo-boss-frustrated-by-shortage-of-directed-energy-weapons/

 

[bcredman]

Wonder if particle beams would be more effective?

For what application/mission?

If your question is in response to the article Still Unhappy With Progress On Directed Energy Weapons..., the answer is No, particle beams would not be more effective than lasers or microwaves for the shipborne or land based air defense since particle beams cannot propagate very far in the atmosphere because of scattering. A possible way around the particle beam scattering in the atmosphere problem is to use a very high peak power pulsed laser to form a plasma channel that confines a charged particle beam to the plasma channel. This has been demonstrated with propagating electron beams in the atmosphere. However, the technology readiness level of such particle beam weapons is much lower than that of solid state laser and microwave weapons, so they would not solve the issue discussed in the article of the transition of laser weapons from R&D to operational fielding being too slow to meet the present need for air defense.

If your question is about the use of particle beams instead of lasers for clearing orbital debris by slowing down the debris so that it re-enters and burns up, my guess is perhaps if the particle beam system is deployed in orbit, but it would not work from ground to space as proposed for the laser system, unless the laser induced plasma channel technique discussed above is used to prevent the particle beam from being scattered by the atmosphere.

 

[Forest Green]

Has that technique ever been tried?

 

[bcredman]

Has that technique ever been tried?

See
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576522004921#:~:text=Contactless space debris removal from the geostationary orbit protected region&text=To verify the possibility of,geostationary orbit to disposal orbits.

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-plasma-thruster-space-debris-technology.html#google_vignette

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576523000553#:~:text=One of the promising ways,to as the ion force.

A Real Life Tractor Beam for Cleaning Up Space Junk

In 1999, astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) strapped into the experimental spacecraft Farscape-1 and blasted into orbit. His intended mission, to carry out a high-velocity slingshot maneuver around the planet, was cut short when Crichton fell into a wormhole and emerged in the Uncharted...

www.syfy.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser (And reference links therein)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-022-01139-z

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep40063

Picatinny engineers set phasers to 'fry'

Scientists and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., are busy developing a device that will shoot lightning bolts down laser beams to destroy its target. Soldiers and science fiction fans, you're welcome.

www.army.mil

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA446847.pdf

https://enviroinfo.llnl.gov/sites/e...01/B865AHistoricAmericanEngineeringReport.pdf Excerpt: "The Advanced Test Accelerator (ATA) facility (Building 865A) was built in 1983 to investigate the feasibility of propagating intense electron beams through the atmosphere. Experiments were conducted in the ATA to test electron beams in the open air to determine how beams propagate in natural environments. This was done to consider the potential for military application of electron-beam propagation, in addition to considering the interaction of electron beams with lasers and plasmas. Completed in the fall of 1983, the ATA facility was expanded in 1986 to conduct experiments using Paladin Free Electron Lasers (FELs) for the Strategic Defense Initiative Office (SDIO)." [Note: In 1987, I was briefed on the research at LLNL's ATA during a tour of the facility when I was working on technical assessments of SDI projects. That was when I first heard of the technique of propagating electron beams along laser induced plasma channels in the atmosphere.]