- Controlling the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is a major asset in military operations.
- Modern weapons systems employ radio, radar, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, electro-optical, and laser technologies.
The Airborne Laser ABL :
aircraft-based Directional Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) system
YAL-1A
It’s an Airborne Laser system (ABL) by Lockheed Martin, modified 747-400F’s are now equipped to take out enemy missles. This system consists of a “High Energy Laser”, “Flight Turret Assembly”, “Tracker Illuminator lasers”, and a “Beacon Illuminator”.
It is primarily designed to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs), similar to the Scud, while in boost phase.
- The ALTB uses one of its six infrared sensors to detect the exhaust plume of a boosting missile.
- A kilowatt-class solid state laser, the Track Illuminator, tracks the missile and determines a precise aim point.
- The Beacon Illuminator, a second laser, then measures disturbances in the atmosphere, which are corrected by the adaptive optics system to accurately point and focus the High Energy Laser (HEL) at its target.
- Using a large telescope located in the nose turret, the beam control/fire control system focuses the HEL beam onto a pressurized area of the missile, holding it there until laser energy compromises the missile’s structural integrity causing it to fail.
System Specifications
- 747-400 freighter [modified]
- crew: 4 including pilot and copilot [which would patrol in pairs at high]
- 1MW-class chemical laser [chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL)] with Basketball diameter beam width
- Telescope 1.5 m [mounted on the nose] with 6 infrared laser beams
- Ranger [carbon dioxide (CO2)] with maximum targeting range 600 Kilometers ,
- Engagement Range: 2000 miles
- Aim targets : Air Targets (missiles in boost phase)
- Research and development cost : more than $9 billion [2nd after raptor F-22]
In Details
- The ABL system uses infrared sensors for initial missile detection. After initial detection, three low power tracking lasers calculate missile course, speed, an aim point, and air turbulence.
- Air turbulence deflects and distorts the laser beam. The ABL adaptive optics use the turbulence measurement to compensate for atmospheric errors.
- The main laser, located in a turret on the aircraft nose, is fired for 3 to 5 seconds, causing the missile to break up in flight near the launch area.
- The ABL is not designed to intercept TBMs in the terminal, or descending, flight phase. Thus, the ABL must be within a few hundred kilometers of the missile launch point. All of this occurs in approximately 8 to 12 seconds.
- Weapon System Integration = High power Laser + Beam Fire Control
Tactical Engagement Phase :
Targeting Sequence
- The scanning of the horizon for the plumes of rising missiles in launch phase. using 6 radars mounted on airplane.
- Ranger laser beam measure it’s distance
- Using 1st laser beam ,Low power Track Illuminating laser (TILL) determine the aim point on the threat missile [the return of the TILL beam of the target nose consist high precision track and rapid designation of the aim point for the high power laser]
- 2nd laser beam ,Pecking Illuminating laser BILL measure the atmospheric disturbance inter-being both.
- 3rd laser beam ,much higher power chemical laser (MW class) with same wavelength
- Using the three bursts of energy the missile will suffer catastrophic damage
- Illuminating the missile with a tracking laser beam while computers measure the distance and calculate its course and direction
Test Phase :
Events are accurate but not shown in real time
Comment “As it may sound impressive it has it’s drawbacks too an ICBM is fired usually thousands of miles away from enemy soil so the 747 has to be flying over enemy airspace with constant threat of anti air missiles and enemy fighters as it is the 747 is a passenger jet with limited manuvarability. ”
An ICBM Spinning on its axis will require twice as long to destroy itPossible countermeasures to laser attack on ballistic missiles include covering the missile with a material highly reflective at the laser wavelength and spinning the missile about its long axis to distribute laser energy over a larger area.
Instead of two minutes, it will require at least four minutes or 240 seconds, which is longer than the 180-second boost phase. The ABL needs an upgrade in technology and must prove it can reliably track and maintain a beam on the same spot on a much-faster-moving ICBM in its mid-course phase.
Loitering above enemy airspace for four minutes in a Boeing 747 may prove to be deadly.
How to Melt a Tank in Three Seconds Or Less
1. Find Your Target
When the C-130 flies within targeting range (up to five miles away), the gunner aims using a rotating video camera mounted beneath the fuselage. The computer locks onto the object to continually track it. A second crew member precisely adjusts the laser beam’s strength—higher power to disable vehicles, lower power to knock out, say, a small power generator. The gunner hits “fire,” and the computer takes over from there.
2. Heat Up the Laser
In a fraction of a second, chlorine gas mixes with hydrogen peroxide. The resulting chemical reaction creates highly energetic oxygen molecules. Pressurized nitrogen pushes the oxygen through a fine mist of iodine, transferring the oxygen’s energy to iodine molecules, which shed it in the form of intense light.
3. Amplify the Beam
The optical resonator bounces this light between mirrors, forcing more iodine molecules to cough up their photons, further increasing the laser beam’s intensity. From there, the light travels through a sealed pipe above the weapon’s crew station and into a chamber called the optical bench. There, sensors determine the beam’s quality, while mechanically controlled mirrors compensate for movement of the airplane, vibration and atmospheric conditions. Precise airflow regulates the chamber’s temperature and humidity, which helps keep the beam strong.
4. Stand Clear
A kind of reverse telescope called the beam expander inside a retractable, swiveling pod called the turret widens the beam to 20 inches and aims it. The laser’s computer determines the distance to the target and adjusts the beam so it condenses into a focused point at just the right spot. Tracking computers help make microscopic adjustments to compensate for both the airplane’s and the target’s movement. A burst of a few seconds’ duration will burn a several-inch-wide hole in whatever it hits.
- Generator : 40,000 pound Chemical laser
- Carrier: modified C-130H aircraft flying at 300 mph
- Targeting Range : 5 miles
- Aim targets : ground vehicles and sea chips
Test Phase
It’s is a giant laser gun with some brain as it can focus the high intensity laser with pinpoint accuracy on the most vulnerable part of the missile that is usually the explosives compartment. The beam makes the compartment so hot that the explosives inside the compartment are destroyed well before they reach their target.
MTHEL is a development of the mobile version of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) testbed weapon, developed by Northrop Grumman under a US Army contract. The program was expected to provide a completed prototype by 2007. By January 2006 the THEL/Nautilus program was shelved due to lack of budget.
THEL — known in Israel as “Nautilus” — meant brewing up hundreds of gallons of toxic chemicals, like ethylene and nitrogen trifluoride.
A mobile THEL proved to be too complex, and too expensive to contemplate. Worse, after a few shots, the lasers would have to be resupplied with a fresh batch of reactants.
Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL)
Sky guard laser based defense system
Skyguard has an infrared camera that scans continuously scans a 6-8 mile radius around the installation site. On finding any heat emitting device in air it scans it for its heat signature and checks that with a database of known heat signatures. If the check reveals the presence of a missile then the laser is activated and it focuses on the main vulnerable compartment of the missile structure that heats it up and destroys it in mid air.
System Specifications
Laser Weapons Syste (LaWS)
There are three significant parts to this story. First, it’s important to note that LaWS is a solid-state laser rather than a chemical laser, which means it’s not quite so hazardous to handle and requires less energy to use. It’s also smaller, which makes it a lot more feasible to pack onto a naval vessel. Second, solid-state lasers are generally weaker than chemical lasers, and that problem is compounded by the moist air in ocean climates, as that moisture can absorb laser energy and weaken the beam. So proving this solid-state technology can work at sufficient strengths over the ocean is a serious milestone.
Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM)
MBDA Germany demonstrates 40 kW laser gun
The German subsidiary of MBDA, the missile systems company that is jointly owned by the European aerospace and defense giants BAE Systems, EADS and Finmeccanica, says that the solid-state laser weapon it is developing has now reached an output power of 40 kW. The power level exceeds the 25 kW levels achieved so far by US rivals – and the company says that it will shortly begin testing the system at a “proving ground” in Oberjettenberg, with the aim of shooting down an airborne target for the first time. MBDA says it has generated such high powers by using fiber lasers combined with its own patented beam coupling technology to maintain high beam quality – crucial for the lasers to be effective at large stand-off distances. In recent firing tests, the laser is said to have burned through mortar shells and pierced 40 mm-thick steel plates “in a few seconds”. “The tests demonstrated the good beam quality of the lasers used and the precise and low-loss merging of the individual beams,” announced the company in a statement. “This is the only way to ensure that targets are neutralised rapidly and reliably.” Output power quadrupled The latest firing rounds represent a rapid increase in output power since tests began in 2008, and after the company demonstrated a 10 kW system in September 2011. That 10 kW laser was able to hit a target from 2.3 km away, under what MBDA described as “real-life environmental conditions” and with an altitude difference of 1 km – and if the 40 kW system can maintain the same level of beam quality, those figures ought to be increased dramatically in the forthcoming tests. “High-power laser weapons can soon provide an answer to conventional and asymmetric threats in military missions,” said Peter Heilmeier, head of market and business development at MBDA Germany. “They can contribute greatly to protecting our troops. Laser weapons are characterised by precision at long ranges, minimum operating costs and the avoidance of collateral damage.” The company is likely to present more details of its beam-combining technology at the forthcoming SPIE Europe Defense + Security conference, which is being held in Edinburgh later this month. MBDA Germany’s talk, entitled “High-power beam combining: a step to a future laser weapon system”, will feature in the conference session on High-Power Lasers: Technology and Systems on Monday, September 24. Shareholder merger impact? The development of “directed energy” weapons – as they are known more correctly – has become a high-profile field of development, with rapid progress in solid-state and fiber laser designs. The SPIE conference also features talks from Lockheed Martin Aculight on the Robust Electric Laser Initiative (RELI), as well as a plenary address by Mark Neice, director of High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office. MBDA’s development of the fiber laser demonstrator is being financed partly via the company’s own funds and in part by the German Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB). Earlier this week MBDA’s two major shareholders, EADS and BAE Systems, announced that they were in talks to merge – a deal that could have a major impact on the global aerospace and defense market if it does get the go-ahead from shareholders and regulators. Currently the two firms each own a 37.5% share in MBDA, with Finmeccanica owning the remaining 25%. Last month, the US Navy published a broad area announcement (BAA) inviting proposals for the rapid development and demonstration of a ship-based solid-state laser weapon. The document outlines a phased $110 million program to scale laser output powers from 25 kW to 100 kW for a largely autonomous weapon that could be deployed in a US Navy “program of record” from 2016 at the earliest. Press release
As a nonlethal weapon, it can be used for crowd control or determining hostile intent before engaging with lethal weapons. ADS can buy life-saving time. “You’re not going to see it, you’re not going to hear it, you’re not going to smell it. You’re going to feel it,” said director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Marine Col. Tracy Tafolla.
The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR This hand-held laser system can temporary blind you
——————————-
The “Active Denial System” (ADS) has the capability to fire high-frequency millimeter electromagnetic waves at 95 gigahertz a distance of about 1,000 meters. According to RT, “the millimeter waves excite water and fat molecules in the body, instantly heating them via dielectric heating, causing intense pain.”
Physorg.com reports that officials say the ADS is the military’s “safest non-lethal capability” developed over 15 years. It was deployed briefly in Afghanistan in 2010, but never used in field operations.
RT also reports that while microwaves will penetrate into human tissue about 17mm (0.67″), the millimeter waves used in the ADS only penetrate the top layers of skin, with most of the energy absorbed within 0.4 mm (1/64″).
Officials, according to RT, say the risk of injury from the weapon was lower than risk from use of rubber bullets or pepper spray. Officials emphasized that it does not cause cancer or exacerbate it, nor does it cause fertility problems or birth defects.
and many on this