US Military Will Install Laser Turrets on Bombers and Fighter Jets

reply to post by burntheships


This makes one wonder if this is the reason Obama scrapped the NMD system in Europe?

Who needs interceptor rockets when all we have to do is arm phaser banks while screaming "Khaaaaaan".

reply to post by SplitInfinity


My info was from a guy who was at Kirtland in the 70s-80s, a master chief.
Most of the conspiracy stuff I know is from ex military.

reply to post by cavtrooper7


Depending on who you are talking to...in my experience...some people who are ex-Military have an issue with over stating just what they did and knew as well as what they know. Not everyone is like this but I have talked to guy's that started going on about places and people and programs that I knew intimately as I stayed quiet and listened to them spout so much Bull S#!%. LOL!

This one guy in particular started talking smack about a SAC base that I basically grew up on and started telling me where they stored Nukes...as where he wa telling me they were was where the NCO Club was located.

So you really have to filter out the Bull.

Split Infinity

All this technology is amazing, but on the flip side, it increases aggression on the part of our military and government. No longer do they have to worry about losing a pilot's life. So what if a drone is shot down, they have more waiting in the wings.

We're getting to the point where we're losing our ability to be concerned about collateral damage and killing innocent civilians. That's already being played out in Pakistan with drone strikes. There is no more human emotion involved in deciphering right from wrong. Military personal are safely removed from the theater.

It's great that we don't have to put our soldiers into harms way, but what my concern is, are we going to start wars at the drop of a hat because of this technology? Are we going to become the bully of the world, if we haven't become that already.

reply to post by Xcathdra


True, I though of that too...
And a few other things that are a changing.

It is going to be a real game changer for sure.

reply to post by Bedlam


Right, which means you still need something bigger than a fighter, or a UCAV, as neither really has the room for the laser, and an APU required to power it. So you're still talking C-130, or if they really wanted to C-27 platforms to carry them.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Isnt there a way they could use spare heat in the engines to power the laser? Some sort of thermoelectric conversion? Theres got to be an awful lot of heat waste in a jet fighter/bomber.

reply to post by TrueBrit


It's theoretically possible, but you're still going to have to build bigger aircraft, to allow for the room to do it. You wouldn't be able to retrofit it onto existing aircraft. Fighters have exactly no extra room on them. I remember helping troubleshoot an antiskid problem on an F-16. The wiring was so small you had to have a magnifying glass, flashlight, and mirror just to SEE the wire, because they made it so small to allow for other wiring in the area.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Honestly? They retro fitted entire new avionics systems to the A10 Warthog not so long back, and the bugger looks precisely the same as it always did. Baring in mind the only components required would be a thermoelectric converter of some sort and some wires leading from it to the laser unit, Im quite shocked that it could not be achieved.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I was just thinking the same thing. Lasers are great but they need a big power source! You need the laser and the power supply which I'd imagine would have to supply a very large amount of energy and would be very large and heavy, you also need fuel for the power supply. No way it would fit in an existing UAV or fighter, the aircraft would have to be designed for the system or a large transport like a C-17 Globemaster modified.

reply to post by TrueBrit


The systems that were retrofitted replaced existing systems that did pretty much the same thing, or were older and removed from the aircraft. They would have to add a turret system, that totally changes the aerodynamics of the aircraft, possibly make it retractable, which means room inside the airframe, plus add a system to provide power to the laser, etc. You'd have to remove a ton of things that are sort of necessary to operation of the aircraft.

The main A-10 upgrades were to the Fire Control System, the ECM system, plus the ability to fire more precision guided weapons. They already had an FCS, ECM, and Pave Penny system. So the C model just got new versions of those systems, not a complete refit of something requiring a major structural change, or anything else.

Originally posted by Bedlam
reply to post by Zaphod58

 

ThinZAG and Hellads will fit in a much smaller space but take a LOT of power, maybe a megawatt to spin that 150kw module gang. Takes its own APU usually.

That was Textron 5 years ago. GAES has it down to 750k

While victims of Sandy's wrath still are without power and forced to survive in freezing conditions we continue to expand this bloated, lipid dripping collossus that is the military-politico-religious-corporate industrial complex. They seek only to perpetuate fear and thereby maintain control. Oh what a bastion of idiocy our nation has become...or always was. If we were to harness all of this power for benevolent purposes, humanity would be living in harmony with all the advanced civilizations of the Cosmos; but instead we are motivated by the fear of our own illusion of mortality...death. Save yourselves, for the conventional intellect is doomed.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks for that explanation Zaphod. That would have been confusing me all damned night otherwise, and now you have outlined the issues, I can see what you are getting at. Also, I can see the aerodynamic issues presented by the addition of some sort of pod or permanently present turret on the skin of the aircraft. Also even if a retractable mechanism were devised, the pilots would probably have to slow down in order to deploy it, because a sudden change in aerodynamics as the turret pops up would be catastrophic in all probability.

They could test it on a Eurofighter I guess. Those things are never aerodynamically stable anyway lol!

reply to post by TrueBrit


Yeah, that's the other problem. If you put something like this on a fighter, you basically now have an aircraft that's going to fly straight and level, and at a set speed. You won't be "yanking and banking" like they do now. I'd love to see them do it, but I don't see it happening by next year.

You know they used to call the F-117 the "Wobblin Goblin" because it was so unstable.

The only people impressed by this are people that haven't worked with lasers day in and day out.

Can anyone tell me how long it will take them to recalibrate for different substrates?

Didn't think so.

Can any one tell me how many different substrates can be applied per 1 mm of thickness?

Far more than the laser can calibrate too.

Sorry folks, lasers are excellent tools for very specific set ups, not very useful as a 'catch all'.

If you want proof in that, go watch any type of laser try to cut a variable substrate (ie: something where all the coatings and make up materials are unknown)...gets boring after the first couple hours.

Originally posted by HUMBLEONE
If we were to harness all of this power for benevolent purposes, humanity would be living in harmony with all the advanced civilizations of the Cosmos

Ah, so right you are.

But, how would the rich get richer?
How would the Bankers line the coffers with the richness of those who
sacrifice themselves and those who are still fighting?

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by TrueBrit

 

Yeah, that's the other problem. If you put something like this on a fighter, you basically now have an aircraft that's going to fly straight and level, and at a set speed. You won't be "yanking and banking" like they do now. I'd love to see them do it, but I don't see it happening by next year.

You know they used to call the F-117 the "Wobblin Goblin" because it was so unstable.

Here might be a solution. Mount it on a Warthog in place of its gatling gun.Add small reactor on in the warthog and remove all other weapons. Take the existing laser designator become a dual use laserprojector/targeting device in the place of the huge gun. Imagine a warthhog able to shoot down all threats andtake on ground targets as long as its fuel held out.

reply to post by yuppa


Because missiles consist of pretty much a rocket motor, and a warhead/tracking system, and have to be small enough to deploy quickly (ground to air for instance) they have limited physical shielding, so if one could find them, taking them out with a laser isnt going to be impossible.

A tank column or a convoy however, will contain armoured vehicles, and a laser powerful enough to turn those to slag, would likely be heavier than the airframe of a warthog !

Seriously awesome. I mean, not if your at the receiving end mind you, but still...

imagine watching the next war on CNN with planes flying over shooting freaking laser beams!!!

Game over.