U.S. Navy To Deploy Rail Guns And Laser

[longknife]

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWZPp3aEjuM]General Atomics Blitzer Railgun - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gMfYUyrKRng]Navy Laser Weapon System LaWS will be deployed in 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

The U.S. Navy’s Science and Technology community is deploying prototypes of electromagnetic rail guns, solid-state laser weapons and underwater unmanned vehicles in operational units with sailors and Marines, senior service leaders said April.

“These prototypes are shifting the game in our favor. We can no longer spend huge dollars on systems — they must be very reliable, very affordable and very effective. It is about developing disruptive technologies that can be hugely effective and hugely affordable,” Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, Chief of Naval Research, Office of Naval Research (ONR), said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s 14th Annual Science & Engineering Technology Conference/Defense Tech Exposition, National Harbor, Md.

Read more … .http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/04/29/navy-set-to-deploy-rail-guns-laser-prototypes/?utm_source=feedly

Comment: The above two videos describe both U.S. Navy weapon systems.

How far we've come, even since 1941 when battleships were considered to be the ultimate weapon.

 

[waltky]

Now we can zap dem terrorists inna butt...

Boeing achieves laser weapons breakthrough
August 14, 2013 — Boeing Co.’s Directed Energy Systems division in Albuquerque has developed a solid-state laser system that eventually could be used by the U.S. military to destroy IEDs, shoot down rockets and take out drones.

“Our team has shown that we have the necessary power, the beam quality and the efficiency to deliver such a system to the battlefield,” said Michael Rinn, the Directed Energy Systems division’s vice president and program director. The company said a recent demonstration here of its “thin disk laser system” — which integrates a series of high-power industrial lasers to generate one concentrated, high-energy beam — exceeded the Defense Department’s technical requirements for potential use in weapons systems. The new system was developed in part through a $6 million contract under the DOD’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative. That program aims to design new solid-state lasers to replace chemical-based ones, which can be more complicated to deploy. “Chemical lasers involve hard-to-handle chemicals and require cumbersome procedures for soldiers, whereas the ones under development are closed-loop, all-electronic systems, making them more mobile and supportable on the battlefield,” Rinn said.

Boeing will now seek DOD funding to package the laser system into a design that can be mounted on weapons such as a conventional deck gun on a Navy warship. “This is still lab technology for now, so we hope to get government funding to take it forward,” Rinn said. “It remains to be seen if the Army picks this over other solid-state lasers being developed.” Rinn said the new system meets the test of achieving high brightness while simultaneously remaining efficient at higher power. The technology basically combines individual, commercial lasers used by industry to create a much more powerful beam that can be applied for weapon use, Rinn said. Boeing worked to retain the reliability and efficiency demonstrated in the original laser heads, which run continuously in industrial applications, while increasing the power and improving the beam. The company needed to reach 30 percent electricity-to-laser efficiency. “We produced a 30 kilowatt laser with 90 kilowatts of electricity,” Rinn said. “Those are the military-utility-class numbers needed, and we achieved it.”

Boeing engineers conduct a demonstration test of the Thin Disk Laser system, which is part of the Department of Defense Robust Electric Laser Initiative

Future contracts could depend on federal defense budgets, which are under pressure in Washington, D.C., Shaun McDougal, Forecast International’s North America military market analyst, told the Journal . Even if budget constraints slow technology development, it’s unlikely to be discarded, given the benefits laser weaponry can bring to the battlefield. The military has high hopes, for example, for another solid-state laser system Boeing is developing for mount on an armored truck under an Army contract. That system, called the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, or HEL-MD, also could be used on improvised explosive devices, rockets, artillery, mortars and unmanned aerial vehicles. “Say there’s an IED spotted on the road. They can just burst it with a laser instead of sending a person or a robot out to diffuse it,” McDougal said.

The military also could increase the laser power for longer distances. “It could then be used to disrupt optics and sensors on unmanned aerial vehicles and surveillance aircraft,” McDougal said. “If they can’t take the aircraft down, then they can disrupt the mission.” Boeing decided in 2010 to center its directed energy work in Albuquerque, where much of the company’s work on the now-defunct Airborne Laser Program was concentrated. Boeing was the prime contractor on that program, a nearly two-decade, $5 billion effort by the DOD’s Missile Defense Agency to mount a high-powered laser on a Boeing 747 to destroy ballistic missiles as they take off. That program ended in 2011, but Boeing continues to work on contracts with the Army and Navy to develop laser systems for mounting on ground vehicles and ships, such as the thin-disk system. The Directed Energy Systems division now employs 350 people, 200 of whom are located full-time in New Mexico.

Boeing achieves laser weapons breakthrough - U.S. - Stripes

 

[Sallow]

Looks neat.

We can finally defeat the Death Star.

 

[Sallow]

Here's another neat thing..

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm7_PPE-8nk]F35 JSF take off. - YouTube[/ame]

Only 400 Billion..

 

[theHawk]

Let's hope Obama doesn't hand the designs over to the Chinese.

 

[Sallow]

Let's hope Obama doesn't hand the designs over to the Chinese.

It wouldn't be Obama..it would be General Dynamics.

They need cheap labor.

 

[whitehall]

The US Navy couldn't beat back a wooden Cris-Craft full of suicide bombers. What are they going to do with lasers? Fight off flying saucers? The threat is the jihad and the fat assed Pentagon dream of super weapons to fight a gigantic navy that doesn't exist.

 

[Meathead]

Cool!

 

[Moonglow]

electro-magnetic ,kinetic energy fired shell, nifty.

 

[Sallow]

electro-magnetic ,kinetic energy fired shell, nifty.

Yeah..but that thing could put out an eye.

And you know what they say about that.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

 

[longknife]

Let's hope Obama doesn't hand the designs over to the Chinese.

They already have them! Seen photos of their version of the F-35 - without all the cost overruns and problems!

 

[kwc57]

Wait a minute.......I thought we already had rail guns!?!?

View attachment $arnold.bmp

 

[Wry Catcher]

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

General Atomics Blitzer Railgun - YouTube
Navy Laser Weapon System LaWS will be deployed in 2014 - YouTube

The U.S. Navy’s Science and Technology community is deploying prototypes of electromagnetic rail guns, solid-state laser weapons and underwater unmanned vehicles in operational units with sailors and Marines, senior service leaders said April.

“These prototypes are shifting the game in our favor. We can no longer spend huge dollars on systems — they must be very reliable, very affordable and very effective. It is about developing disruptive technologies that can be hugely effective and hugely affordable,” Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, Chief of Naval Research, Office of Naval Research (ONR), said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s 14th Annual Science & Engineering Technology Conference/Defense Tech Exposition, National Harbor, Md.

Read more … .http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/04/29/navy-set-to-deploy-rail-guns-laser-prototypes/?utm_source=feedly

Comment: The above two videos describe both U.S. Navy weapon systems.

How far we've come, even since 1941 when battleships were considered to be the ultimate weapon.

And how far from that 5" 38 on my old DD.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The US Navy couldn't beat back a wooden Cris-Craft full of suicide bombers.

They didn't even try, so claiming they couldn't doesn't make a lot of sense.

What are they going to do with lasers? Fight off flying saucers? The threat is the jihad and the fat assed Pentagon dream of super weapons to fight a gigantic navy that doesn't exist.

Lasers would have some great applications as CIWS vs. enemy antiship missiles, something a lot of countries without giant navies or superweapons have.

 

[longknife]

More on the subject @ Navy's future: Electric guns, lasers, water as fuel - CNN.com

 

[whitehall]

Shifting the game in our favor? What the hell does that mean? Did the freaking chair bound fat asses in the Pentagon give up on the US Military? Last I heard the US Navy was the most powerful force in history on the sea and even in the air. Did something happen since US warships became floating brothels and the USS Cole couldn't defend itself with a freaking .50 cal machine while they were attacked by a plywood cabin cruiser?

 

[Bgallo28]

Looks amazing.

 

[longknife]

Looks amazing.

A couple of things about it:

First, no gunpowder to blow up if mishandled.
An extremely long life for the gun barrel.

These are two things that have plagued guns since they were invented.

Now, if they can only get the lasers to work we'll really be in the 22nd century.

 

[my2¢]

Hopefully the design plans weren't on Hillary's server.
Now what I really wonder is how reasonable is it to have a power plant of that size aboard a vessel?
It is good to see dough being spent on development, I've been concerned for these past dozen years that everything was going into the Middle East.

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