Northrop Grumman's laser system passes second major milestone
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 12th 2008 2:45PM
posted Mar 12th 2008 2:45PM
Last we heard from Northrop Grumman it was making some steady progress towards a weapons-grade laser system, and it now looks like that's even closer to becoming a reality, with the company announcing that the system has passed its second major milestone with flying colors. According to the company, the key "laser chain" component was demonstrated on December 20th, 2007, and actually exceeded all target requirements, including reaching a power of 15.3kW, a good deal above the 12.7kW they were aiming for. That component is just one part of the so-called Joint High-Powered Solid State Laser Phase 3 Program, which is designed to combine eight laser chains for a peak power level of 100kW, otherwise known as the level deemed necessary for weapons-grade laser systems. While there's still no indication as to when that might happen, Northrop Grumman has gone as far to say that, with this latest test, "the hardest part is over," so it looks like it might not be as far off as you might think.
[Via The Register]
[Via The Register]
The power level! It's over NINE THOUSAND... watts.
"the final system configuration is on track for a full power system demonstration of 100kW by the end of 2008"
They plan on firing the full system with over 100kW of power this year!!!!
Mine still goes to 11.
House full of popcorn anyone?
Lazlo was awesome.
Wow! "Real Genius" isn't it?
I wonder if Mitch and Chris have anything to say about this?
JIGAWATTS!
seriously though, what exactly is "weapons grade"? Will this thing punch a hole through armor plating in a few seconds?
It would be much more useful to shoot down tank and artillery ordinance mid-flight.
And attaching to sharks.
whale sharks maybe... with a massive extension cord.
Hollyfeld warned us about this...
How do they dissipate the 12.7kW of waste heat?
I heard the JSF model uses the airplane's fuel to absorb the heat waste.
Very cool but in order to generate enough electricity to shoot the thing you need a generator the size of a railroad locomotive engine...so much for mounting it on the head of a shark. :(
Don't you remember things way less in water. So maybe a shark can still be able to swim with it.
You're both thinking inside the box. We just need to genetically engineer larger sharks. It's a win-win!
Megaladon!
@Kamokazi
Well if you are going to genetically engineer sharks to be larger, why not engineer them to produce electric current like an eel too? Though I have trouble thinking outside the box since I spend so much time thinking about box....
Megaladon was awesome.
It's great until somebody invents a weapons grade mirror...
Not if we ALSO build a weapons grade mirror. Then we have the Mirror Arms War.
The weapon mirrors war - bringing PONG! to life.
The problem is that the lazer would have enough power to destroy the mirror in a few nano seconds.
@FordGT Guy:
WOOOOOOOSH
Well, mirrors can be shattered by physical objects easily. So all we would have to do is invent some fancy physical object propulsion system. We could get a long tube, place an explosve charge in it, and then a small metal object in front of the charge, and then ignite the charge, hurtling the metal object towards the mirror and shattering it!
Putin to Bush:
My mirror is shinier than your mirror :P
"mirror mirror on the wall. Who has the bigger lazer of them all?"
I'm so glad we're continuing to make such great progress in devising ways of killing things.
I was thinking more along the lines of self-defense, you could probably use these things to destroy missiles and things like that in mid-air.
I dont think this is meant as a mobile platform. Missile defense, or sitting atop a large naval destroyer would be a good area for this to go into. Though I'm sure one day we'll manage to make X Wings.
Sharks with friggin laser beams
technically its "frickin'" lasers
DSOTM lazer show!!!
All you need is a tracking system and a large spinning mirror and you could vaporize a human target from space.
"Kent's tracking system is gone! How could you build that mirror?!"
So what would you use that for?
Making an Arm of Swiss Cheese!
I will technically not be happy till I see those things attached to Gundam units
Is it just me, or are they filing that multi billion dollar laser using a $100 VHS camcorder? Or is that a high speed camera disguised as a camcorder?
that's what I was thinking when I first saw it!
Mini-me stop humping the laser!
Maybe I'm just weared out from coding to much at work, but besides the cool factor, what do we need laser defense for? Is it cheaper of something? Or because one day army men will need to blast alien spaceships out of the sky with a pen-sized device?
no, because we'll be controlling giant robots with legs to shoot at giant flying robotic snakes that come invade our cave lairs. you also have to grimmace and yell quite a bit while you're doing this.
Datacide, It's a lot cheaper and accurate than firing missiles. Since lasers travel at the speed of light, you can basically aim at an enemy's missile and fire without worrying about trajectory (ideally). There are high energy costs with each blast, but it's still magnitudes less than the money needed for even a single anti-ballistic missile.
"December 20th, 2007, and actually exceeded all target requirements, including reaching a power of 15.3kW, a good deal above the 12.7kW"
Wow, 15.3kW and that is without hooking in the Oscillation Overthruster!
How many "laser chains" do they have to combine to destroy a planet... such as, for sake of argument, Alderaan?
Do I predict a reverse Hitchhikers Guide happening?
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam/DeathStar.html
That's the exact image I had in my head, Joe. Apparently since this laser can only run for 300 seconds at a time, we'd need something like 52.3e+24 of these lasers all chained together to generate the 2.4e+32 Joules necessary to destroy a planet. I think we can rest assured this won't happen soon.
Maybe in the future we could use it to destroy Near Earth Objects?
Sooo... When are we blowing up Alderaan?
Pshew! Pshew! do-do-do-do! Pshew!
Will they make them in green for the good guys and red for the bad guys?
I just hope they have some failsafe to prevent someone from reversing the polarity.