by Jim Wilson, Popular Mechanics. A good, short article on the several models of directed-energy weaponry now being tested. EFL.
. . . Over the next few minutes we watch the Army’s Humvee-mounted Zeus laser cast its glowing eye upon an assortment of unexploded ordnance. Seeing Zeus in action, we realize we are looking at more than a fast new tool for safely clearing unexploded ordnance. We are looking at the first major military breakthrough of the 21st century. . . .
Thus far, the most compact chemical laser to score a kill is the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL), shown here. A few weeks before PM’s visit to White Sands, MTHEL became the first laser weapon to track and destroy multiple artillery projectiles in flight at the missile range. The Air Force is using similar chemical laser technology for its Scud-killing airborne laser, which fits inside a modified Boeing 747-400 freighter.
Zeus makes a sharp break with the past. Instead of using highly reactive chemicals to create a laser beam inside a plume of hot gas, Zeus performs its magic inside a special type of glass. Its operating principle is the same as that of all solid-state lasers, including those in CD drives and DVD players. Basically, light from a beefed-up flashbulb sends a stream of photons into nine neodymium-doped glass discs. Inside the discs, the light, which can be thought of as a rabble of raw recruits, becomes organized into a crack drill team--what physicists call a beam of coherent, monochromatic light. Gaining strength as more light is pumped in, the colorless laser beam bursts out one side of the crystal with enough power to heat steel at 200 yards. . . .
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., which developed the 10-kilowatt SSHC laser for the Zeus system, believe the power can be increased to the 100 kilowatts needed to microwave Yassir Aarafat blast enemy rockets from roughly 5 miles away. |