Beyond The Sprues
Modelling => Ideas & Inspiration => Land => Topic started by: finsrin on January 03, 2014, 02:51:52 PM
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Reads like time has come for armor laser whiffs.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/how-the-army-s-recent-successful-laser-test-could-change-the-future-of-warfare-005259265.html (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/how-the-army-s-recent-successful-laser-test-could-change-the-future-of-warfare-005259265.html)
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Hmm - shows promise but it's got a way to go yet before it becomes any sort of "magic bullet", and that's before anyone starts taking serious countermeasures.
Drone:
It took ages to bring the drone down, so:
a) How much longer would it take if the drone had an ablative or reflective coating to reduce the heating effect of the laser?
b) How much longer would it take if the drone had a laser sensor that told it it was under attack, prompting it to take violent evasive maneuvers? Remember, it doesn't have to stay permanently out of the beam, it just has to change aspect so that the heating is distributed across the airframe and hot spots get a chance to cool down.
Mortar Rounds:
It took roughly 10 seconds to destroy each mortar round, so:
a) How hard would it be to swamp the laser with mortar bombs or multiple rockets, so that it couldn't get them all before they started landing on it?
b) How much longer would it take to destroy each round if they had an ablative or reflective coating to reduce the heating effect of the laser?
c) The laser was engaging the rounds from off-axis, giving it a clear, side-on view of them from just after launch. What would happen if they were coming at the laser (so smaller target profile) and from behind a hill, so the laser didn't get line-of sight until halfway through the flight?
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I participated in a discussion on something similar a couple of years ago where I posed the question whether a surface combatant (corvette, frigate etc.) would be able to do away with missile armament in the foreseeable future and be armed with a mix of high energy lasers and guns firing corrected and guided munitions instead. My suggestion was countered with similar arguments ref ablative or reflective coatings to which I postulated that any efforts to protect RAM, missiles, or aircraft (I didn't mention UAVs or UCAVs but it would apply to them too) would make the target more vulnerable to the guided projectiles from the guns.
There has been work done by Germany on using 155mm airbursts in the RAM role as well as AHEAD type rounds from auto cannons. There is also the Italian DART guided rounds used in the CIWS role but adapted to RAM and SPAAG roles as well.
I suppose it comes down to using layered systems of systems to cover off against most potential threats rather than relaying on a single solution, as Israel's missile based solutions appear to be working quite well.
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Bah! ;) Old stuff...
MTU (1975)MTU (Mobile Test Unit) a 30 kW electrically-excited CO2 laser built by the U.S. It was housed in a Marine Corps LVTP-7 tracked landing vehicle:
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/mtu_01_zps415f6f1d.jpg)
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/mtu_02_zpsf8b8de8b.jpg)
Soviet "Sanguine" system:
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/d28cecc76cf0_zpse24d880f.jpg)
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/9487762821d2_zpsfd5821e1.jpg)
Soviet 1k17 system:
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/otvaga_szhatie_1_003_zps468fcad4.jpg)
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/soviet-laser1_zps16655db9.jpg)
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/GTwiner/soviet-laser2_zps4fcd4ab0.jpg)
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Isn't the paint on that LVPT-7 soooooo shiney ..... needs a little weathering to make it realistic imo.
Great pics, I had seen the 1K17 but not the other two.
cheers
Brent
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Isn't the paint on that LVPT-7 soooooo shiney .....
Proof that you could model an armoured vehicle using gloss paints and no weathering and still be accurate. ;)
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Has been time for armor laser whiffs for years and I didn't even know it.
Goes to show you how little I know ???
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I wouldn't be too worried Bill - its not like any of them are in widespread service.
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Latest camouflage pattern...... mirrors!
Or at least gloss white.
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Ablative coatings work better in dark colours because they then absorb the light more readily. This would work well for vehicles and UAV and manned aircraft. For projectiles, simply mirroring would more than likely reflect most of the energy. However, that could lead to an interesting situation. You fire lasers at them and then fire a homing missile which is designed to home on the brightest visible light object in the sky (other than the sun) - the incoming projectile as it scatters all the light. You use your high energy lasers to destroy or designate the targets.
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In Choosers of the Slain the ship fires a laser-guided shell at an enemy aircraft designating it for a bomb drop; totally ruins the pilot's day.
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First real-world casualty of Laser Warfare occurred in the 1980s - British soldier in East Germany naughtily taking a photo was targeted by a Russian tanker who triggered the laser range-finder - it burnt a small mark on the camera's reflector & also on the soldier's eye.
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In Choosers of the Slain the ship fires a laser-guided shell at an enemy aircraft designating it for a bomb drop; totally ruins the pilot's day.
Is that a laser guided shell or a laser seeking shell? Unfortunately all too often the former is used to mean the later. Hellfire ATGM are laser seeking. RBS-70 is laser guided. All too often people will unfortunately call the Hellfire "laser guided".
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In Choosers of the Slain the ship fires a laser-guided shell at an enemy aircraft designating it for a bomb drop; totally ruins the pilot's day.
Is that a laser guided shell or a laser seeking shell? Unfortunately all too often the former is used to mean the later. Hellfire ATGM are laser seeking. RBS-70 is laser guided. All too often people will unfortunately call the Hellfire "laser guided".
It was a PGM for a near-term-future destroyer's main gun.
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Newest news (and to think Arnold wanted a hand-carry in the 40kwt range)
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2022/01/13/army-readies-to-deliver-first-set-of-strykers-with-50-kilowatt-laser-weapons/?fbclid=IwAR3lJzZ32sn12P8eynrdlgYU0rPk-A9-_mOggYKV1hmK64o1ReAJ4sB9is0 (https://www.defensenews.com/land/2022/01/13/army-readies-to-deliver-first-set-of-strykers-with-50-kilowatt-laser-weapons/?fbclid=IwAR3lJzZ32sn12P8eynrdlgYU0rPk-A9-_mOggYKV1hmK64o1ReAJ4sB9is0)
https://www.army.mil/article/249549/army_to_field_laser_equipped_stryker_prototypes_in_fy_2022 (https://www.army.mil/article/249549/army_to_field_laser_equipped_stryker_prototypes_in_fy_2022)
(https://api.army.mil/e2/c/images/2021/08/20/03394446/size0-full.jpg)
Related - pretty damn close here @Buzzbomb
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=9195.msg172882#msg172882 (http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=9195.msg172882#msg172882)
Lighting treatments http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=9484.msg177156#msg177156 (http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=9484.msg177156#msg177156)
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Somewhat related - the output of fiber optic lasers is doubling in about 20 months:
(https://centauri-dreams.org/wp-content/images/lubin1.jpg)
From https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/01/14/the-long-result-star-travel-and-exponential-trends/ (https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/01/14/the-long-result-star-travel-and-exponential-trends/)