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Plane mounted Laser guns - Darpa — Parallax Forums

Plane mounted Laser guns - Darpa

Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
edited 2014-11-29 20:10 in General Discussion
http://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-plane-mounted-laser-guns-could-look-like-1663777440
DARPA is going gaga over the pew-pew. The department just awarded a Northrop Grumman a $20.2 million contract to begin the second phase of its Excalibur Program—one which aims to give the same kind of missile-frying laser cannon that's currently patrolling the Persian Gulf to America's Air Force.

You look at the size of the existing laser systems America has fielded in the past few years—like the HEL-MD and the laser aboard the USS Ponce—and they're all enormous. What's more, they require massive amounts of power to operate. So shrinking all these bits down (along with a means of driving them) into a package that can fit under the wing of an aircraft or even a drone (DARPA's looking to eventually put these systems on Predators and Reapers because duh) is no easy feat.

attachment.php?attachmentid=112069

lasergun.jpg
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lasergun.jpg
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Comments

  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-11-27 09:41
    how many orders of
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-mini-650nm-6mm-3V-5mW-Laser-Dot-Diode-Module-Head-WL-Red-/261455283189?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cdff303f5
    would it take to build this onto our drones?

    We might have to get one or two additional LiPO's I imagine.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-11-27 10:51
    I wonder if they are using my 21- cent lasers from China... http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/157172-21-Cent-Lasers

    If so, DARPA owes me a buck!
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2014-11-27 11:09
    erco wrote: »
    I wonder if they are using my 21- cent lasers from China... http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/157172-21-Cent-Lasers

    If so, DARPA owes me a buck!

    I doubt it...

    http://gizmodo.com/this-mortar-hunting-war-truck-just-got-a-powerful-new-l-1482647200

    The The Army's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) mentioned above has a 50KW output
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-11-27 21:06
    At 5mW, erco would only need one million to match the 50KW off the DARPA laser weapon. At $0.21 each, thats only $210,000 (batteries not included).

    For the same price as the DARPA contract, he could deliver 100 prototypes, or one protoype and have change left over for a small party.

    If someone would volenteer to help write the grant proposal, I will volenteer to help with planning the party.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-28 01:55
    Braino,

    You have lost a decimal place. I make that ten million 21 cent laser equivalent power. And 2.1 million dollars.

    Sill might be competitive though. If there is enough in stock and the shipping is free.

    I make that about 1000 square meters of lasers. We are going to have to put this on the run way of an aircraft carrier not the actual aircraft. Hope we can hide that fact in small print in the grant proposal somewhere where they won't find it.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2014-11-28 03:28
    Use the wording 'designed for Carrier-based operations'...
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-11-28 07:27
    Details, just details. Remember, these go to the lowest bidder. Free shipping from China can always be found, 1000 square meters is a disk of only 10 meters.

    All we need is erco to find a deal on 3 million LR44 and we are in business.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-28 07:36
    Details, details...

    I make that 17.8 meter radius, nearly 36 meters across. Pretty huge!

    Who is going to do all the soldering?
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-11-28 08:02
    Heater. wrote: »

    Who is going to do all the soldering?

    And aligning? These factory second lasers shoot off-axis, as some of us have discovered. :)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-28 08:57
    Alignment, never mind the alignment. I just want to see a 36 meter diameter plate of ten million densely packed laser diodes light up!

    From a safe distance and with appropriate eye protection of course :)
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-11-28 09:06
    Maybe I'll call some buddies from Perkin-Elmer that produced the Hubble Telescope mirror to see if they can whip up another mirror, ( without the error of course). :)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope


    I worked there during the time of grinding. It took two years.
    Hubble.jpg
    720 x 480 - 111K
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-28 09:36
    What a great place to work. That is cool. I don't think that tiny error in the Hubble mirror will show up in our plan here. They got any reject mirrors going cheap?
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-11-28 11:40
    Ok, some more quick calculations for the bid proposal.

    How many sharks would it take to carry a 36 meter disk for the anit-submarine version?
  • CuriousOneCuriousOne Posts: 931
    edited 2014-11-28 12:38
    I've read somewhere in the past, it was serious magazine, not pop scifi book, about some practical considerations about laser beam weapons. Two major problems were outlined - scatter of no matter how focused laser beam in atmosphere, due to tiny dust particles there and problem, when high power laser beam causes air ionisation, which forms conductive plasma channel, which itself forms huge lightning strike :)
  • ajwardajward Posts: 1,130
    edited 2014-11-29 11:37
    Perhaps "synthesizing excited Bromide in a Argon matrix". Movie reference here! ;-)

    @
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-11-29 20:10
    Reel Jeenyus?
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