Airbourne Laser?

"First light proved that the laser worked," a Defense Department spokesman told The DAILY. "This 10 second-plus
test proved that it fires long enough to destroy ballistic missiles."

How close is this to space weapons?



read up all the technical stuff and more pictures here:eyepod.org...

Not that close.

The ABL uses a massive chemical laser, it requires large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, potassium hydroxide which are combined with chlorine gas and water. It can only fire a couple(20) of shots before it has to refuel those chemicals.

A space based version of the ABL can't be refueled that easy, and as cheap as the Airborne version.

[edit on 1-11-2006 by Zion Mainframe]

why only shoot down missles. use it against ground targets say like nuke sites of facilities that are above ground

Well, I think that the whole point with "laser weapons" is, to create a concentrated beam. This laser can't do harm on a large area. But it is very effective when it comes to destroy a 5 X 5 centimeter large area. Just like destroying a missile.

Ya i heard about that plane, but it's not the only one of that profession there r more planes like that (names i cant recall). But ya it was designed to destroy missiles by screwing up the navigation and setting the missile off way 2 early.




Falcon out.

Navigation??? No. The point it to burn the whole into the missile to blow it up. What happens when you burn a hole through a fuel tank.

As far as space based weapons...They would need a Solid State Laser, meaning it uses electricity instead of chemicals to gather its power. And the weapon would have to be at least 1 megawatt...which is a lot of juice.

Oddly enough, it was YEARS AGO when I saw a special on the HELs (High Energy Lasers) on the History Channel, complete with a Boeing spokesperson talking about it, etc. So, I can only imagine that if they are public with that, the black or blue projects must be really spooky...

Originally posted by chinabean
"First light proved that the laser worked," a Defense Department spokesman told The DAILY. "This 10 second-plus
test proved that it fires long enough to destroy ballistic missiles."

Some may be tempted to read into the article that it would take 10 seconds of beam exposure to destroy a missile - that assumption would be grossly incorrect.

Here's a little more on the ABL's COIL operations:




1. insulated pipe filled with heated helium gas
2. pipe containing chlorine vaporized by the heated helium
3. chlorine is reacted with hydrogen peroxide, producing single energetic atoms of oxygen
4. the gain isolation valve which injects heated iodine into the stream and routes the mixture into the...
5. gain cavities, located inside a section of the beam tube. The excited iodine is the lasing medium - The iodine and exhaust are then purged.
6. Laser resonator, where the high powered light is amplified and sent to the fire control system
7. Alignment lasers which keep the high power laser from destroying itself by sensing airframe movement and flexing and adjusting the high power beam and mirrors accordingly.
8. a crane rail not pertaining to actual operation

The elongated black boxes in the centerline of the floor make up the catwalk for the technicians.

(source)

[edit on 1-17-2006 by intelgurl]

check out Wicked Lasers


you can buy a 125 mw (1/8 watt) laser pointer that will burn your skin and melt plastic. these are un-focused laser beams.

now if you have ever seen the first test that was done on a 707 aircraft then you know that these beams are a couple of feet in diameter. instead of destroying a missle (which the 707abl did in a live shoot or die test) lets point this megawatt class laser at a target on the ground oh like say the president of iran or some other sort. if a 1/8 watt beam will burn your skin what do you think a mega watt one will do

nuff said

[edit on 18-1-2006 by bigx01]

wow,that pretty much a light saber right there for the star wars ffolks

Originally posted by bigx01
now if you have ever seen the first test that was done on a 707 aircraft then you know that these beams are a couple of feet in diameter. instead of destroying a missle (which the 707abl did in a live shoot or die test)

"Shoot or Die test?"....
The EC-135 (Boeing 707) ABL shot down 5 AIM-9's and one target drone. I am skeptical that this aircraft was ever actually put in a do-or-die situation.
Do you have any linkable proof?

Intelgurl, can you explain more about the 707 test, I was completely unaware we even had a 707 with a ABL. Any photos would be great too

Train

Those tests were conducted in the 70's if I'm not mistaken. Back then they used modified 707's (KC-135's) for flight testing, and had one for the ALL (Airborne Laser Lab).

More info and pics at:

www.globalsecurity.org...
www.afa.org...


Anyway, there is still a lot of support for the ABL program, and laser weapons research: Laser weapons going strong, fielding needed --Northrop


[edit on 1-18-2006 by Zion Mainframe]

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by bigx01
now if you have ever seen the first test that was done on a 707 aircraft then you know that these beams are a couple of feet in diameter. instead of destroying a missle (which the 707abl did in a live shoot or die test)

"Shoot or Die test?"....
The EC-135 (Boeing 707) ABL shot down 5 AIM-9's and one target drone. I am skeptical that this aircraft was ever actually put in a do-or-die situation.
Do you have any linkable proof?

yes it was a live missle, you can get the video from the discovery channel as you can with any of their programs. they run it from time to time on the discovery military channel. their biggest suprise was the microscopic dust catching the insulation on fire

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by bigx01
now if you have ever seen the first test that was done on a 707 aircraft then you know that these beams are a couple of feet in diameter. instead of destroying a missle (which the 707abl did in a live shoot or die test)

"Shoot or Die test?"....
The EC-135 (Boeing 707) ABL shot down 5 AIM-9's and one target drone. I am skeptical that this aircraft was ever actually put in a do-or-die situation.
Do you have any linkable proof?

yes it was a live missle, they could destroy it in flight as a safety precaution but it was none the less a live missle with warhead. you can get the video from the discovery channel, as you can with any of their programs. they run it from time to time on the discovery military channel. their biggest suprise was the microscopic dust catching the insulation on fire

They had two NKC-135s. One had a bunch of targets painted on the side, one had a laser mounted. They would occasionally do low powered tests on the targets of the second one, and they did several tests with live missiles. They were live missiles, but they were NOT shot at the NKC. They were fired at a drone in the target area, and the NKC would shoot them down before they could hit.

www.wpafb.af.mil...


[edit on 1/20/2006 by Zaphod58]

Originally posted by Zaphod58
They had two NKC-135s. One had a bunch of targets painted on the side, one had a laser mounted. They would occasionally do low powered tests on the targets of the second one, and they did several tests with live missiles. They were live missiles, but they were NOT shot at the NKC. They were fired at a drone in the target area, and the NKC would shoot them down before they could hit.

www.wpafb.af.mil...


[edit on 1/20/2006 by Zaphod58]

according to the pilot in the interview the last one was shot at the 707abl. now i would tend to believe the pilot. next time discovery runs the epp. i'll record it and post the section of video