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do anybody know anything about Indian secret laser weapon KALI. it was suppose to be a antiaircraft and anti satalite weapon system. last heard it was working but weight was heavy so mobility was problem. indian were trying to bring down the weight.
KALI is not a laser, it is a linear electron accelerator. Weaponising such a system has many obstacles to overcome. They are designed for industrial purposes (usually welders). India has put them to work in ballistics research (as an illuminator for high speed photography), and EM hardening research on the LCA project (tuned for microwave discharge).
They are very large and power hungry. The KALI 5000 weighs 10 tons and uses 12,000 liters of oil for cooling. The KALI 10000 weighs 26 tons. They are single shot devices, using water filled capacitors to build the charge energy. The discharge is in the neighborhood of 1GW in energy and lasts about 60ns, IIRC. Then it has to recharge, which takes quite a long time.
As a weapon, the theory is that if you can miniaturize the device, overcome the power problems inherent in portable devices (no electrical grid to connect to), and give it the ability to fire several pulses in rapid fire (i.e. you need a very quick recharge time), then it could be used as a soft kill weapon (using microwave frequencies) on missiles and AC by disabling the electronics and computers of the target. Of course you have to develop the aiming and beam control mechanisms, etc.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
Lol, those are pretty broad questions- I could spend a couple days answering them and not even scratch the surface. I'll try to give the readers digest version.
The two main approaches to laser weapons right now are Solid State and Chemical. The one we are putting most energy into is chemical lasers right now, but we are developing solid state lasers for future systems, and have the ZEUS system today, which is a 10KW solid state laser. ZEUS is mounted on a HMMWV, and is being developed as a testbed for higher powered solid state lasers, and as a mobile system for destroying unexploded ordnance. Right now, solid state lasers are limited to about 25KW in output, but work is progressing on more powerful versions.
Solid State lasers use the same basic principle as your CD player- using electricity as the power source, light from a souped-up flashbulb sends a stream of photons into a series of neodymium-doped glass discs. Inside the discs, the light becomes a beam of coherent, monochromatic light. As more light is pumped in, a threshold is reached, and the beam bursts out of the crystal with (hopefully) enough energy to do it's job.
There is another solid state laser under development that will go in the F-35A and F-35C. This will be a 100KW class (or larger) system that will go in the space that the lift fan occupies in the F-35B. It will be powered by a generator that runs off the same shaft that drives the lift fan in the STOVL variant. The F-35 is a nice platform for this, since it already has a lot of excess power available from the engine.
Chemical lasers offer higher power- in the megawatt class- but they need pretty large platforms to haul the chemicals, the laser modules, and the beam control systems. The basic COIL laser has several modules, each one has a reservoir of Hydrogen Peroxide, Chlorine, and Iodine. Chlorine gas is injected into the liquid Hydrogen Peroxide to produce excited oxygen. Iodine gas is then injected into the excited oxygen to produce excited iodine. When the iodine returns to its normal state, it releases photons, which are amplified to produce the laser beam.
The THEL/MTHEL (Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser) system is a joint US-Israel system that is used for taking out small rockets, mortars, and cruise missiles. It uses a chemical laser, and requires three semi-truck sized trailers to haul everything. You can google for more info on this if you want details.
There is another chemical laser project called the Advanced Tactical Laser that will go into AC-130 Gunships, and be housed in a large wheeled module that will fit in a C-130.
The ABL (Airborne Laser) is the modified 747 that will be part of the Boost Phase ballistic missile defence system. The range of the ABL is classified, but the Air Force lists it as "hundreds of kilometers".
The ABL has six COIL modules, and actually uses 4 lasers in all- the first one is a kilowatt-class laser that finds the missile (after onboard IR sensors detect the launch), reports basic data such as range, speed, and altitude, and begins tracking it. The next laser to fire is a Tracker Illuminator Laser, it sweeps the missile with its beam, locks onto it, and determines the spot where the high-energy laser will be aimed. The third laser, the Beacon Illuminator Laser, bounces a beam off the missile back to the aircraft. This measures the amount of atmospheric disturbance between the aircraft and the missile, and the information is used to compensate the HEL using an adaptive optics system. Finally, the high-energy laser, in this case a megawatt-class Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser, is fired.
The ABL is not as new as some people think. In the 80's, we had a test system called the ALL (Airborne Laser Laboratory) that was installed in a 707, and it successfully shot down (IIRC) 5 missiles in tests. Basically it was a technology demonstrator to prove the ABL concept.
The main problems are heat dissipation (especially in solid state lasers), beam control, size, and power requirements, (and cost, naturally). Tuning the beam to adjust for atmospheric conditions requires very sophisticated adjustable optics, SSLs generate a lot of heat, and COILs are very bulky. Solid State lasers have yet to be developed into high power systems, but this will come in time. It takes about 100KW input to get 10KW output from a SSL.
There are some other approaches, gas-phased lasers that use the same principle as the liquid chemical lasers- they are nice because they don't need the refrigeration that the liquid chemicals need, but they are a few years out right now. There is also work going on with free-electron lasers, which use superconducting radio-frequency accelerators to create a tunable beam of electrons. We would need to see some advancement in superconductivity to make free-electron lasers competitive with, or superior to, electric or solid-state lasers as the technology stands today.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
can you give me an approximate time era in which either chemical/solid/gas lasers will be able to be used as very portable, small, light weapons, like fire-arms, assault rifles, high-powered sniper rifles?
thanks, what about tank rifles etc. or be used on an aircraft, replacing the gun
what is the speed of a laser beam, does it depend on it being a solid based or chemical?
thanks for the answers
did you have to take physics in School to learn this, very interesting, or was Chemistry enough? because i'm taking Chemistry and Biology next year, maybe i should also take Physics
can you give me an approximate time era in which either chemical/solid/gas lasers will be able to be used as very portable, small, light weapons, like fire-arms, assault rifles, high-powered sniper rifles?
I would guess 20-30 years. That's just a guess. It all depends on getting small powerful sources of energy.
Originally posted by Dima
thanks, what about tank rifles etc. or be used on an aircraft, replacing the gun
8-10 years for initial deployments of 100KW class solid state lasers (at the rate we are going now).
Originally posted by Dima
what is the speed of a laser beam, does it depend on it being a solid based or chemical?
Doesn't matter what type, all light travels at light speed. (186,300 miles/sec in vaccuum)
Originally posted by Dima
did you have to take physics in School to learn this, very interesting, or was Chemistry enough? because i'm taking Chemistry and Biology next year, maybe i should also take Physics
Yes, you should take Physics. Chemistry and Physics are closely related anyway. My major was Chemistry, but I took Physics too (and Biology, Astronomy, Geology, Manufacturing Technology, LOTS of math, etc).
COIL lasers weren't invented when I was in college, all we had were low powered solid state lasers back then. Your education doesn't stop when you graduate, that is just the beginning. College only teaches you how to learn, it's up to you to keep the process going.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
Both technologies are really in their infancy. It's only now that we are even able to make directed energy weapons small and powerful enough to even consider mobile platforms. So I would say there are miles to go with both types. We will probably see workable 100KW class SSLs and Gas-phased COILs in the next decade.
We would definitely like to move away from the bulk and hassles of chemical lasers if we can. There are many areas where we need to make technological leaps. In the near future, there is room for both types- chemical lasers give us the high power levels needed for long range hard kill weapons, and solid state lasers will be used more for closer range and soft kill or disabling weapons.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
BTW it stands for Kilo Amplified Light Intensifier. Atleast, I think. I read a report on this 6 years ago. So, excuse my memory, in case its wrong. But its around something like that.
As I previously mentioned, it is a linear electron accelerator, not a laser- electrons, not photons. The pulse can be adjusted to x-ray (for photography) or microwave (for EM research) frequencies, or it can be used an industrial welder.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
Yes, you should take Physics. Chemistry and Physics are closely related anyway. My major was Chemistry, but I took Physics too (and Biology, Astronomy, Geology, Manufacturing Technology, LOTS of math, etc).
thanks for the advice, dang, i dislike Math, but Science is awesome
i'm real good at Chemistry and Biology, last year's electricy(Phsyics) unit screwed me up, but i really hope to redeem myself next year, this year's physics, i totally bombed the hell out of, so easy
so, you advise me to take Chemistry and Physics, Astronomy is really interesting, Geology, awesome, i'm good at Geology, oh, just a question for Math, in Gr.12, what different levels of Math did they offer, Calculus, Geometry etc. and what did you take?
thanks, nice to get some information froma grizzled veteran as yourself
... in Gr.12, what different levels of Math did they offer, Calculus, Geometry etc. and what did you take?
In junior high school, I took 1 year of algebra, then in high school I had geometry, another year of algebra, then trig as a junior, then calculus as a senior (it was really pre-calc). Then in college, one more year of calculus that ran concurrent with the 200 series general chem.
You need to take calculus concurrent with 200 series general chemistry. If you try to take them separate, you won't pass the chem. Then you will have a year of organic and inorganic, one year of quant and qual, then field studies (for a B.S).
I did it the hard way, usually you would take pre-calc and 100 series chemistry as a freshman. I skipped both of these classes, and took 200 series chem and calc my first year- I don't recommend this.
If you want to do post graduate studies in biochem or toxicology, you need to take all the biology you can as an undergrad. I took the other sciences, geology, astronomy, physics, etc. mostly for fun.
I can't overstress the math- take as much as you can get. If you flunk, take it again. I had to take college calc twice to post a good grade- the first time I took it, it got me through chem. Then I took it again to improve my grade (which was a "D" ). Don't give up on the math, it's the most important thing (teaches your brain how to think logically).
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
When will the solid state lasers on the F-35 A/C's be implemented?
8-10 years for the first systems, at the rate we are going now.
Originally posted by Franco Lolan
If implemented, wouldn't this make them an almost impervious to long and medium range AAM's?
That's the theory- the first systems will be lower powered devices that are designed to spoof the incoming missiles, the next generation devices will be hard kill devices that can target the missile or launch platform.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
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