Navy shells out for development of missile-killing free-electron laser
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 24th 2009 6:09PM
posted Apr 24th 2009 6:09PM
[Image courtesy of AIP]
posted Apr 24th 2009 6:09PM
What you get from playing Tetris
A new study published by the big thinkers at Mind Research Network has found that "practicing Tetris" can improve brain efficiency and lead to a thicker cortex.
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Your average US Navy carrier has between 8 and 10 independent nuclear reactors on board. I don't think energy is going to be a problem for a ship mounted Uber-laser gun.
I think they were being sarcastic
Actually, Crono, only the original Nimitz carrier had 8 reactors. It was so massively over-powered that it was reportedly able to outrun every other ship in the battle group at speeds of 50+ knots. Subsequent carriers were equipped with two larger reactor systems.
That said, the first thing I thought is that the US Navy is the best in the world at building mobile nuclear-electric power -- it would be well within their skills to build a class of ship with sufficient continuous power-generation capacity to drive a bunch of these bad boys.
Makes a lot more sense to me to float a heavy cruiser with nuclear-electric-powered FEL armament than, say, loading up a fleet of 747s with vats of toxic chemicals and fly them in continuous orbits off the shore of North Korea just in case. Oh, wait...
Nimitz class carriers only have two reactors, not 9 to 10. Only the Enterprise had more than two, she had four. The Nimitz is also limited in her electrical power generation, something the Ford class hopes to change.
Actually, you are all wrong. Enterprise has 8 reactors. 4 separate power plants with 2 reactors each. All Nimitz class carriers have 2 reactors onboard. The Ford class coming out soon will also have 2 reactors. Source is me, 8 years in Naval Nuclear Propulsion, stationed aboard a Nimitz class carrier for 4 of those years.
Nimitz class has 2 reactors, enterprise class has 4 less powerful ones. Source: Janes
Unfortunately, Janes is wrong on that. I knew people who were stationed on the ship. It's got 8 small A2W type reactors. The Nimitz class uses much larger A4W reactors.
Actually you're all wrong, the Enterprise has some kind of Warp Drive thingie - the Nimitz is probably similar. source: Star Trek: The Search For Spock / Wrath of Kahn.
GM has just the connector for charging this thing, call GM and ask for marketing.
"The average navy ship has 8 to 10 nuclear reactors on it"
Uh... no. Nuclear reactors are currently only used on carriers and submarines. Carriers only have two reactors onboard. That's all they need. The USS Enterprise is the one exception. It is also the oldest nuclear carrier in the fleet. It has eight nuclear reactors. The only reason it has so many, however, is because they're small compared to the two on Nimitz carriers.
In any case, power shouldn't be an option for a laser like this. Since it will only be fired for a short period of time the power can be acumulated in capacitors or batteries or possibly something like flywheels that will provide the burst it needs.
Yeah, the Navy has no experience with nuclear react...ors.
Nm
i see what you did there...
proceed...
but when are the sharks going to be wearing them on their heads?
@Griff
That's just plain stupid!!! This is the US Navy, it's dolphins with frickin lazors on their heads!!!
"Two other U.S. Armed Forces"? Um, isn't it Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines? Or is one of those a part of another one?
The Marines belong to the Navy. The Coast Guard is the fourth branch of the military.
The Coast Guard actually falls under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Homeland Security not the Department of Defense.
The Marine Corps is an independent fighting force with its own chain of command. Only the civilian bureaucracy above it is shared with the US Navy. Think of them as siamese twins, even though they're connected at the hip they are still separate entities.
the navy shelled out 7 million dollars to two companies????? Is that all? What are they hoping for? a new screwdriver? surely not a new weapons system.....
that last comment is the only intelligent thing on this blog so far.....
I thought Marines were a subset of the Navy? Like the "more kickass" subset.
I think you're talking about the Seals
I dont think energy is much of a problem considering we have nuclear aircraft carriers and subs. What's a nuclear laser ship compared to those.
really, the navy just wants to have sweet dance parties and pretend they are The Daft Punks
I wonder where the usual "omgz gaize u mak wepins to KILL ppl!!1``~~~~ omgz teh world is full of luv guaize!!1111 you killars!!!111" commentators are who criticize every military-related research project.
4 posts down...
Engaget obviously don't had a clue about dept of navy role, marine is under dept of navy as well. Navy provide bigger role than Airforce is second major brand behind Army.
This day only Michael Bay care about Navy in Hollywood while the rest most favor Air force. I am not against air force, is just every brand provided important role to show why U.S. Military is the best of the world, the military can't be fully function if one of their brand is missing.
U.S. Navy wasted actually created due to pirates attack against U.S. Merchant ship 200 plus years ago, when England no longer provided Navy protection and we spending over 20% of federal money to pay pirates ransom.
Most deadly military equipment isn't B2 is actually Nuclear Submarine that can carry ballistic missile, they can launch anywhere in the world, and always there's one in patrol read for command.
(Ret.) U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer (20 Years Submarine, 10 Years Aircraft Carrier Experience)
I can't imagine anyone thinking the Air Force is the "baby brother" branch... the Army does the most overall and is on the genuine front lines, but the Navy provides far more support than the air force.
USAF was founded in 1947. So in terms of age, it is the "youngest".
That's what I was thinking, jjigen. With the Army, Navy and Marine Corps tracing roots back to 1775, it's the Air Force that's the baby. My buddies say that makes them more modern. I say it makes them more civilian. I personally think the Navy and Marine Corps team to be unstoppable. The Army and Air Force not so much.
A bit off topic, but if the Navy can manage to have nuclear reactors on all of its ships without any incidents (or am I not in the know?), why don't we have more nuclear power plants in the U.S. But back on topic, lasers; sweeeeeet.
Public perception. People have a mostly irrational fear of nuclear power. If you reminded the average San Diego citizen that there were a couple of nuclear reactors just across the harbor at North Island (aircraft carriers) and a few more at Point Loma (submarines), they'd freak out.
because nuclear power is more expensive than alternatives. it is however far easier to carry around large amounts of fuel for a nuclear reactor than a coal fired power plant so there you go.
There's nothing saying the Navy hasn't had problems with nuclear reactors... You think the Navy would voluntarily come out and say something like... 'At 0800 hours, one of our nuclear attack subs had a reactor breach off the coast of Japan. They only had to dump 20kg of Uranium into the ocean. Any questions? No questions. Good day.'
Anyway, nuclear reactors have the nasty side effect of producing radioactive lead. You can't very well put it into the landfill...
Also reactors, generally, use a local stream/pond/handy water source to cool the process. This raises the temperature causing said water source to be a breeding ground for all kinds of potential nasty microbes.
falconz,
That has got to be one of the most ignorant statements I have ever read. I did 2 years in nuke school learning about reactors and 4 onboard a sub. There is no way we can just drop uranium overboard, its embedded in the core. Usually, all you have to do is shim rods in to control reactivity but in case that goes south, you can just scram the reactor or release poisons into the system, which would stop fission from occuring.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself, holmes.
By now you would think we would be at the age of diplomacy. For shame.
Well, when a missile is heading towards the continental United States, I'll be sure to give the President your phone number so that you can practice your excellent diplomacy skills with the missile. Who knows, maybe that metal will suddenly come to life and negotiate with you, then you can both ride off into the sunset on the back of a unicorn.
Were in a recession and they are spending all this money on a laser? Cut millitary spending and divert this money elsewhere please. The military doesn't need it nor should they receive it.
Yes, because the entire world is only populated by people made of unicorn tears and fairy farts, and nothing bad will ever happen again.
So, where is this place called oblivious land, and how do i get there?
Hey, did you hear about this little dibacle off of Samalia, or how about all the disaster relief the Navy provides, or how about when anything shitty in the world happens, whether a matter of national security or humanitarian assistance, the US Navy is one of, if not the first, to respond, the Navy is already tight on money, every little bit helps, even if it is something that helps later on down the road and not right at this very instant.
Funny; neither Boeing or Raytheon are "military," but they do indeed employ people. The military also employs people. Both need a paycheck anyway, and we need to defend our country.
But hey, its easier to just read article titles without reading the articles, then open your mouth and bask us all with your foolishness and naivety.
Free as in beer or free as in speech?
Whoa wait. Free beer?!
Damn, just saw this pop up and wanted to be the first with the smartalecky "nuclear reactors" post. Unfortunately everyone and their dog thought the same thing.
Yeah, I always built a few of those in Supreme Commander.
The phone is mine sir
I'll talk to you forever
Until I hang up.
Soooo we are investing billions of dollars with a missle defense system that will give us a pleasing light show? That's a good trade off I guess. :)
Atleast we'll be entertained when being attacked.
Since when is "14 million" dollars the same as "billions" of dollars?
I wish I could apply that kind of logic to my paycheck.
"Navy's just the baby brother to the two other US Armed Forces,"
----Correction the Air Force is the "Baby" Brother (of the whole Armed Services)
Correct. Founded in 1947, it is definitely the youngest.