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Cool laser weapons

Lasers are so cool. I remember that I was still at school when I came across a Popular Scientist (or maybe PM) magazine with plans to build your own laser.

I'd have given my right eye to have been able to do that. The lure of having your own coherent light source was just that strong. And of course there were also the massive number of scifi books I'd already read in which lasers were "the" weapon of choice.

Now we have news that US company Raytheon has successfully been demonstrating its new anti-aircraft laser, a weapon that brings yesterday's science fiction to the shelves of an arms dealer near you.

Called "The laser Close-In Weapons System (CIWS), the system consists of a very powerful (50KW) laser combined with some rather sophisticated targeting and tracking.

The manufacturer claims that CIWS can knock out UAVs, missiles and even incoming mortar shells or small surface vessels.

This real is scifi come to life!

The current incarnation of CIWS can harness the ultra-fast and accurate radar tracking system built into the Phalanx Gatling-gun system that was previously the defense weapon of last resort onboard seagoing vessels and Raytheon says that CIWS is presently designed as an adjunct to that weapon.

Although it might sound like this is "the uber-weapon" and something every armed nation would immediately want, I'm thinking that all may not be as rosy as Raytheon might suggest.

For a start, these things are not small or cheap.

Raytheon say it can be mounted below the deck of a ship and the beam fed to a targeting turret by way of fibre-optic cables. I guess that means it's very big.

Then there are the many factors that can refract, absorb or diffuse the light from a laser beam, especially if that beam is very powerful. Moisture in the atmosphere can absorb the light, causing localised heating that also heats the surrounding air. The result is a kind of lensing that can spread or refract the beam, sending it off-target and reducing its energy delivery.

Of course there's also the thorny issue of how do deal with a target which has been equipped with highly reflective mirrors. Suddenly, your powerful "death ray" could be coming right back at you.

But, the trials seem to prove that so far (under "test conditions") the CIWS does work as advertised.

I wonder how long before we see this kind of technology miniaturized to the point where it becomes a practical personal weapon - either in rifle or handgun form.

How will we deal with that situation?

Surprisingly, we're already part-way there with up to 1W solid-state lasers being freely available on the internet and capable of running from rechargeable batteries.

One watt isn't a lot of energy and won't kill you (although it will take out an eye) but it could be used to start a fire from a significant distance, effectively without trace.

Step up another level and you could "repurpose" one of the 30-40W CO2 lasers that are commonly used in desktop laser-cutters. Now that could cause a very painful injury and would be most effective at starting fires from many Kms away.

Of course the biggest bang you can get from a laser right now comes from its use as a targeting aid. A good portion of the US smartbomb arsenal has laser-guidance capabilities. In order to mark the exact point of impact, ground forces need only illuminate the target with a specially modulated laser beam of quite low power -- and the bomb will make its way directly to that point, striking within a few cm of the little dot of coherent light.

A surprisingly large amount of our technology is now reliant on the laser but it would appear that weapons are becoming a real growth sector for these beams of coherent light.

Related story: Anti-aircraft laser unveiled at Farnborough Airshow

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