Pew Pew Pew!

[scooter]

Take that Buck Rogers!

[Weaver]

Hmm - be interesting to see if they can keep it locked onto the same spot on a maneuvering target for long enough to take it out: it doesn't take much point-of-aim wander to turn a "hot spot" into a "warm stripe". I can see it being good against drones though: even if they twist and turn enough to avoid getting burned, you can still dazzle them enough to screw with their optics and get you a mission kill.

[PR19_Kit]

Now just a mo there, IIRC that's MY aeroplane you're shooting at!

[kerick]

I wonder how long it takes between shots.

[scooter]

I wonder how long it takes between shots.

Article didn't say, and it probably depends on whether they're just dazzling or burning.

[rickshaw]

30 KW is within the realms of many large portable generators.  Shouldn't take any time between shots if the power input is continuous at that level.

As for killing the optics on a drone, that can be easily counted by putting filters on them, including a rapid shutter.   It will though, make flying them more difficult as you'd need to keep maneuvering to prevent the laser getting a lock on and burning the drone out of the sky.  Silvering the drone would help dissipate the heat, even just painting it white would help.

[Weaver]

Yes I've often thought that a silvered surface would offer good protection against a laser for long enough to get out of the beam (depends how powerful the laser is, of course). You'd want a layer of paint over it to make it less conspicuous, but that offers another possibility: make the paint an ablative layer a milimetre or two thick, which would offer more protection.

[Hobbes]

Silvering doesn't help much against lasers that are powerful enough to burn holes in metal. No mirror is 100% reflective, so the laser will quickly heat the reflective coating to the point where it chars and is no longer reflective.

Video of a 500W industrial laser being used in a mirror factory to cut mirrors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-VlVmBZGI4

[Weaver]

Silvering doesn't help much against lasers that are powerful enough to burn holes in metal. No mirror is 100% reflective, so the laser will quickly heat the reflective coating to the point where it chars and is no longer reflective.

Video of a 500W industrial laser being used in a mirror factory to cut mirrors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-VlVmBZGI4

Two things with that though:

1. The laser in the factory is right up close to the surface, so it's getting a tiny, consistent spot size and no atmospheric attenuation, no focussing problems, no vibration, no aspect change and no tracking errors. Point the same beam at the same mirror from a couple of miles away and the result would be very different.

2. The drone doesn't have to sit there and take it: it only has to resist the laser for long enough to detect that it's under attack (fractions of a second) and then change course/aspect.

[Thorvic]

Off Topic

Ok how many thought "Barny. McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub" when they started to read the title of this thread ? 

[Gondor]

Off Topic

Ok how many thought "Barny. McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub" when they started to read the title of this thread ? 

Actually Not Guilty but now I have the tune for Trumpton stuck in my head.... perhaps a contender for Song of the day?

Gondor

[scooter]

Off Topic

Ok how many thought "Barny. McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub" when they started to read the title of this thread ? 

I was thinking more along the lines of-

[TallEng]

Off Topic

Ok how many thought "Barny. McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub" when they started to read the title of this thread ? 

Um me, actually
Although all those pew's had me worried for a bit
But then I thought it's probably the rap version

Regards
Keith

[zenrat]

Really?  USS Ponce?

ponce
BRITISH (informal)
noun
1. derogatory - an effeminate man.
2. a man who lives off a prostitute's earnings.
verb
1. live off a prostitute's earnings. - "he was arrested for poncing on the girl"

I assume anti-laser missiles with hardened tracking optics are also in development?

[Weaver]

Really?  USS Ponce?

Not even scratching the surface. These are/were all real:

USS Stump
USS Moosbrugger
USS Trippe
USS Bearss (not a typo)
USS Blue
USS Boggs
USS Brush
USS Chew
USS Cone
USS Dent
USS English
USS Hank
USS Hopper
USS Hyman
USS Izard
USS Little
USS Mayo
USS Mullinnix
USS Noa
USS Parrott
USS Quick
USS Shirk
USS Shoup
USS Sloat
USS Stout
USS Stribling
USS Whipple
USS Wood

..and that's just from the destroyers list.......