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Naval Laser Beam
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
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When I have the Map, I will be free, and the world will be different, because I have understanding...of digital watches. And soon I shall have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn't interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time! Forty-three species of parrot! Nipples for men! Slugs!! He created slugs. They can't hear! They can't speak! They can't operate machinery! I mean, are we not in the hands of a lunatic? If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!"
When I have the Map, I will be free, and the world will be different, because I have understanding...of digital watches. And soon I shall have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn't interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time! Forty-three species of parrot! Nipples for men! Slugs!! He created slugs. They can't hear! They can't speak! They can't operate machinery! I mean, are we not in the hands of a lunatic? If I were creating a world, I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, day one!"
I had to look up that quote because it sounded familiar. I haven't seen Time Bandits since it was new on HBO in the early 80's! Classic line.
How long before someone makes a weaponized surveyor's prism?
Corner reflector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corner reflector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meh. A single shot from a .50 cal works faster. And a whole lot cheaper. Lasers have their uses but that's not one of them IMO.
i_got_a_mohawk said:Which is why I was talking, in response, to lasers which are designed to incapacitate people.
Lower power lasers, which are eye-safe, won't blind you or cause any form of temporary blinding.
As the power increases (only into 10s of mW), the laser could blind you if you forced yourself to keep your eyes open, but the blink response will save your vision (as said, unless you force yourself to keep your eyes open!).
Beyond those powers, you're into lasers which will either scar instantly or, in the case of higher power CW/higher peak powered pulsed lasers, the retina will be ablated leaving a nice bleeding hole at the back of the eye
If a laser was designed to have a high enough power that it could kill someone (), the speckle and reflections from it would easily be powerful enough to blind someone. There are "eye-safe" frequencies, but those are in much higher wavelengths, and when it comes down to it, it's still a huge amount of energy, where damage to sight is far more likely
The post you replied to suggested expanding the cone of the beam in order to incapacitate... With a wide enough beam, the power density of the laser might be brought below the threshold of permanent damage.
If there's enough energy to cause anything beyond a blink response, for incapacitating someone, it'll be likely to cause damage to the eye. There are some systems used for this, but, I'm not sold on the effectiveness (which is probably why tend to be used for blinding sensors).
It was such a menace that congress voted and passed to make it illegal to point one at the cockpit of an airplane.
Kinda silly when you think about it, because you don't have to knock out the cockpit to down a plane.
Because it's the apparent dazzling of the pilots, not physical damage to the plane. Still not sold on it being anything other than a minor annoyance tho, dare say I can see it being a PITA while flying a jet plane tho!
Navy raygun disables boat with laser weapon - Technology & science - Innovation - msnbc.com
I would not want to be on the wrong end of that thing!
Isn't it great what the brightest minds on the planet are capable of?
Intelligence is highly over-rated...
I can't imagine this working in rough seas on a small target. You won't have a steady line as the target drops into the valley of the swells.
Nevertheless, I doubt that some guy was sitting there following the motion. The technology to automatically track a target has been around for a long time.
Munjibunga said:
Yeah but that little outboard could disappear very easily in 15 foot swells. What's this thing going to do? Shoot through water? Meh, perhaps you're right. Perhaps they got that line of sight thing worked out.
Different weapon. You're thinking of a microwave transmitter.
You guys are right. That is a very inefficient use of a laser. I do believe it has immense value in naval applications, but for defensive use, not offensive*. Incoming supersonic missiles are far more dangerous and far more fragile targets. A laser wouldn't have to cut a missile in half, it would just have to disrupt the control surfaces -- the air would do the rest.
The current anti-missile defense consists of other missiles and the 20mm Phalanx. Lasers have the advantage of never running out of ammo as long as there's power.
*One offensive use for a laser against other boats and ships would be to take out radar and coms. A laser could effectively blind a ship and render it incapable of controlling its own missiles. And it could to it at a much longer range than any gun is capable of, and without the noise and radar signature of a missile.
