New TBMD Laser

There's a  full page article about a new anti-missle laser mounted on a
747 going into production in today's USA today. Very interesting.

> There's a full page article about a new anti-missle laser

There was a special on the UK Science program Equinox on this system. Its
designed to shoot down SCUD like missiles Its powered by a chemical laser
using peroxide and chlorine (or something equally hideous and lethal) its
flown and operated by very brave people.

It uses a flexible mirror to correct for atmospheric distortion and increase
its range.

> Tim Jones wrote:

> It uses a flexible mirror to correct for atmospheric

Yes and if I'm reading the article right (probably not):

1. The targetting laser paints the target. 2. The returning beam is measured
for distortion. Assessing the atmorshphere between the laser and the missle.
3. The "rubber mirrors or lenses" distort the primary beam as it's fired by
the atmosphere, in almost an opposite fashion. The beam can be over a meter in
diameter as it leaves the AC. 4. The very atmosphere the laser is passing
through refocuses the distorted beam so that when it reached the target, it's
back into its killing configuration (roughly the shape of a basketball.)

In FT usage, would this specify that a space-based Beam system is
potentially ineffective against atmospheric targets unless it contains a
similar distortion-compensating mechanism?

Read, I think, Cardinal of the Kremlin, which contains mention of this and
other problems in firing a laser thru atmosphere.

> From: Los <los@cris.com>

As this seems to be the best way to deal with firing a laser through an
atmosphere, most combat lasers would probably have this feature. There's a
couple of was to work around the atmospheric distortion - they were
doing some tests with a Space Shuttle (Atlantis, I think) bouncing beams from
Hawaii off the Shuttle and vice versa. With particle beams you have
another problem entirely - beam scatter/distortion due to the planet's
magnetic field. You get around it be altering the charge on the projectile
particles. It all kind of depends on your particular FT background.

I wonder how useful this TBMD laser palne would be at shooting down other
aircraft. If the beam footprint is the size of a basketball, unless they can
hold it on the target for a *long* time (probably not), that's an enormous
amount of energy being delivered. Might be able to finish off a plane right
quick.

Noah

[quoted original message omitted]

Yes I did read that book, enjoyable. looks like they're preparing to go
operational with this weapon. they've already got funding for a squadron of
seven Boeing 747-400s mounted with the TBMSD Laser.

Los

> laserlight wrote:

> Read, I think, Cardinal of the Kremlin, which contains mention of this

According to the article, one three-second burst destroys a missle. So
it's not a pulse but a sustained beam that lasts a few seconds. You're right,
must be a
hell of a lot of energy. I suppose it could kill an A/C jsut as easy if
not easier, assuming it could track it through manuevers.

> At 21:03 2/09/98 -0400, Los wrote:

Of course, if the pilot is not wearing his laser-proof Ray-ban's, he may
be
in a whole S***-load of grief. As some navies have found, even signal
lasers are quite nasty. There was an article on this in Red Thrust Star last
year, I don't think it's still on line. Very, very nasty.

> Bruce S. R. Lee <bsrlee@wr.com.au> wrote:
I've been reading a recent issue of Aviation... Weekly, their EW issue. One
article describes a missile defence system with a laser radar. Once it detects
a missile moving toward the aircraft, it scans the nose of the missile so that
it can select the appropriate countermeasure depending on the frequency the
missile is homing on. All within seconds!