Beam weapons almost ready for battle

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Beason said he has a blue-sky idea of his own, which he tags "the voice from heaven." By tuning the resonance of a laser onto Earth’s ionosphere, you can create audible frequencies. Like some boom box in the sky, the laser-produced voice could bellow from above down to the target below: "Put down your weapons."
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*ahem* is it on? oh!
Put down your weapons! This is Allah!
*snicker* *giggle* shut up! *ahem*
Like I said, this is Allah. Put down your weapons. Americans are your friends.
That's right, now put up your hands and walk slowly toward the American soldiers. We -uh- They're nice guys, really.
Well done my sons. I am proud of you.
Oh, by the way, pork, shellfish, and booze are now officially OK.
*bwahahaha* shut up! *heeheeheehee*
 
middy said:
*ahem* is it on? oh!
Put down your weapons! This is Allah!
*snicker* *giggle* shut up! *ahem*
Like I said, this is Allah. Put down your weapons. Americans are your friends.
That's right, now put up your hands and walk slowly toward the American soldiers. We -uh- They're nice guys, really.
Well done my sons. I am proud of you.
Oh, by the way, pork, shellfish, and booze are now officially OK.
*bwahahaha* shut up! *heeheeheehee*
Click to expand...

ROFL
That was the funniest thing ive heard ina long while....

Oh man...

Imagine the pyops capabilites with that...play screeching music 24/7 over enemy camps.
 
Meh. I've been reading this sort of thing for 20 years. The problems with beam weapons have always been their extreme power requirements, their sensitivity to atmospheric conditions, and their fragile nature. They work fine in certain industrial applications, but not when it comes to blasting things out of the air. It's the wrong tool for the wrong job, and most of the billions wasted on these projects has been a direct result of too much sci fi on the brain. People just *ASSUME* we will be moving to beam weapons because that's what's been on the cover of the pulps since the 1940's.
 
benEzra said:
One interesting thought...in one of the more recently written Bolo books, it was stated (in fictional retrospect) that the development of high-power directed energy weapons (the fictional Hellbores) made the tactic of vertical envelopment obsolete, since no aircraft or helicopter could carry enough armor to stand up to a Hellbore, and since it was a speed-of-light weapon, no aircraft could avoid being hit. Hence, the only way to dominate the battlefield in a high-energy beam weapon environment was to field heavily armored ground based mobile systems--giant tanks, the Bolos--with enough armor to stand up to the energy weapons while carrying enough offensive firepower themselves to defeat opposing systems. Once such a tank was on the ground, even orbiting spacecraft were vulnerable as soon as they cleared the tank's horizon.

We're not all that far from that scenario. If beam weapons powerful enough to shoot down aircraft and missiles become a reality, and they are small enough to be mobile, then the tank may again become king of the battlefield. A 5-megawatt laser will quickly take out an aircraft, but it's not going to do much to a 50-ton MBT, as long as fuel and ammo aren't stored externally and sensors are retractable. And if that 50-ton (or 100-ton, or 200-ton) tank carries a couple of 20-megawatt beam weapons, close-in defenses, and antipersonnel weapons, there's not much that could threaten it. (Except maybe another tank.)
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I'll have to read up on this 'Bolo' Series. sounds interesting. there's a flaw in their reasoning, though.

Two words: STEALTH AIRCRAFT.

If you can't find it, you can't shoot it. Also applies to spacecraft and cruise missles.

and remember, something like one of these 'bolo' tanks would be HUGE. you don't need close air support to take it out.

other systems that might work...

CHAFF. set up a combat cargo lifter to dump chaff at 20,000 feet, and do your bombing runs at 30,000.

if the chaff is shaped correctly, it should form a stable cloud, falling very gradually. given sufficient depth, density, and quanity, any laser firing through the chaff will become highly diffuse, as well as expending a great deal of power to burn through the chaff cloud. if you planned it right, the thermals caused by chaff burn-throughs would be sufficient to draw replacement chaff in from the surrounding areas.

also: ARMORED SPACESTATIONS.

Aircraft have limits to how much armor they can possess and still fly. (Although you might be able to fix that with a very tall dirigble armored only on the underside, or sufficient engine strength....)

Spacecraft don't have ANY weight limits. if you can get it into orbit, even one piece at a time, you can make it as massive as you want. give it a very large shield that mirrors the threatining frequencies, and add laser ports and crowbar missles. you'll be set for life.

the hard part to that is the fact that that type of spacecraft would show up well on weapons-frequencies radar, and would be up for long enough that ground-to-orbit stationary artillery could come to bear. you'd probably need to add a thin opaque coating on the surface of the mirror, so that minimal probings would be absorbed. and you'd need to be mobile or expendable, because once ground stations have your range, you're dead.

Be an interesting challenge there.... weapons power versus armor capability.

if the armor can maintain reflectiviness for a few seconds, and it's shaped right, you should be able to rebound the enemy laser right down their throats... on the other hand, if the laser is vastly overpowered, to correct for your armor, it should be able to shatter your armor instantly, making the point moot. but if the laser ISN'T that powerfull, then the immediate area around the laser needs to be shielded against rebounded fire, and someone needs to calculate what happens when laser emmissions feedback into the generation chamber....

I'm predicting that we wind up in a world of small stealth air and space vessels with laser-burst missles and bombs, along with insanely fortified dreadnoughts and ground bases.

which, come to think of it, is not that different from where we were at the onset of the navy world war two, or the air/navy at the end of the cold war.... albeit using different technologies to achieve the same effect
 
well, for the non-believers

go back say 50-75 years ago and say

We're going to fly a 4-5 times the speed of sound.

We're going to carry little metal boxes the size of a matchbox and talk to somebody 1/2 way around the world..instantly

we're going to read newspapers from outer space

we're going to focus light beams so we can destroy stuff

we'll have a box in the kitchen that never gets hot but boils a cup of water in 45 seconds

you'd have been locked up for being a nut

I've seen enough to believe that virtually nothing is impossible
 
If you told someone 75 years ago that you'd be using a philip's head to unscrew standard slot screws, they'd call you stupid and they'd be RIGHT. Lasers have applications, but nothing about them lends itself to the battlefield outside of sci fi novels and movies.
 
BenEzra, if you want to read some of the best science fiction that mentions details like that I would suggest checking out David Drake.
 
Lasers are OK, but I'm waiting for the BLEEX project to evolve into full blown power armor. :evil:


Anybody who believes that "its so they can carry heavier packs" line is an idjit. :cool:
 
Next time you see an ET, thank them. About time we started putting that Roswell and Area 51 technology to good use....
 
Dang it!! This class of weapons have already been outlawed here in Michigan.
1976!!! They must have been watching Star Trek reruns.
Josh
 
Don't underestimate the power of politics on new weapons systems. Do you really think we'll get battlefield laser rifles if they aren't built by Colt and don't need a forward assist? ;)
 
Serious question about beam weapons

Ok, say if we got aroung the power issues and created a usable reliable and man portable laser "rifle". What would the effect of using said weapon be? I.E. I don't believe there would be a visable beam unless in fog, smoke etc. Would it make any sound? I have read the beam would "crack" as it burned a hole in the atmosphere and also that they would be completley silent. Would there be ANY recoil however slight? How about a particle beam? Say if you shot an evil storm trooper with it, would it burn a cartarized hole in him or create a steam explosion as it superheated the water in his tissues?

I have read LOTS of scifi and the techno babble on the subject is endless. Anyone have any facts on this. Currious minds want to know!

Thanks
Jaycat
 
The_Antibubba said:
Don't underestimate the power of politics on new weapons systems. Do you really think we'll get battlefield laser rifles if they aren't built by Colt and don't need a forward assist? ;)
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What would the forward assist be for, smacking the batteries into position? :neener:

I can see it now: "Duracell feeds MUCH better than Energizer!"
 
Reading this thread I think there is alittle too much fascination and focus on the possibilities of man-portable devices, consequently ignoring what are perhaps the more significant and ominous land, vehicle, ship, aircraft or even satellite based weapons.

A variety of so-called "less than lethal" weapons from lasers covering wide areas with the ability to cause blindness, sound cannons, to high powered microwaves that can disrupt normal bodily functions etc. These have been under developement for decades and are already being quietly introduced into service domestically and elsewhere.

NYPD for example already has vehicle mounted acoustic cannons; these were visible on the streets of NY during the RNC for "crowd control".
----------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org
 
I read a book years ago called "Silver Tower" in which we put a space based laser up.

It's job was to provide all the stuff the airforce, artillery and what not was supposed to provide, mostly air support or direct fire support.

In the book it could shoot down anything that was below it with it's laser.

The problem came when the russians (it's always the russians) flew up there to wreck it with some space planes. (thats the way it goes)

In the recent popular science i noticed a small blurb about lasers not being used on the ground, but in space!

The idea was to put up a laser to seek out and swat enemy satalites out of orbit. That would cause a few problems for the guys using GPS and whatever else on the ground, not to mention ruining football season.

The idea of a space laser would solve our current problem of the air screwing up the beam, only if it was fired in space and not through the atmosphere though.
 
Yes Phyphor, Duracell feeds MUCH better than Energizer and those cheap steel case Wolf batteries screw up the terminals and if you can find them those Spanish made Santa Barbara brand batteries have really hot +P voltage and might blow out your diode.

Endless threads on red verses green laser light. One guy has a laser that does great in gel and another guy rambles on about laser tests on French sheep and yet another guy has one laze stop figures he read in some laser magazine.
 
I've built a small rail gun, and the gun is dwarfed by the power supply required. Imagine a .380 pocket pistol that had to be hooked up to the battery from your truck to work.
Directed energy devices are on the shelf now, in the form of microwave ovens. Some modification is required, but imagine one in the trunk of your car, with a horn (the square pipe that carrys and directs the beam) pointing out the back, similar to a hitch receiver. 1000 W isn't enough power to damage the driver behind you, but it could induce some nasty transient voltages in his cars computer if he got too close. Hopefully before he turns on those nasty red and blue lights. These require 12-1500W input, but that's within reason for a passenger car.

If we keep insisting that all those Iranian officials who've died in plane crashes recently were brought down by US space-based weapons, the notion will gain some cred, and they'll quit flying in decrepit Russian planes. +1 our side.
 
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