U.S. Navy fries ship with a laser

[Penguin]

In a demonstration near California’s San Nicholas Island last Wednesday, scientists with the U.S. Navy tested a laser weapon aboard the USS Paul Foster by shooting a 15-kilowatt beam at an inflatable boat from a mile away, causing the outboard engines to burst into flames. It was the world’s first successful water-test of a high-energy laser. “I spent my life at sea,” Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told Wired, “and I never thought we’d see this kind of progress this quickly, where we’re approaching a decision of when we can put laser weapons on ships.”

Source with video here: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...s-ship-on-fire

This could be a cool less-lethal anti-piracy weapon - or a new method of distance-cooking.
If it really was this fast as the video suggests, then I am impressed.
It seems that they follow in the footsteps of good ole Archimedes: http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www//experi...desResult.html

[Reece]

Imagine if it struck your eyes, reflections etc!!

[the_tyrant]

Placing mirrors on one of these might be a good idea:

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

Placing mirrors on one of these might be a good idea:

That would work for about an 1/8th of a second, after that the surface of the mirror would be vaporized and not work. They would be better off placing layers of carbon or steel armor on the ship.

More importantly, when will they fry chips with lasers.
That would be progress in the war against lardarses

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Source with video here: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...s-ship-on-fire

This could be a cool less-lethal anti-piracy weapon - or a new method of distance-cooking.
If it really was this fast as the video suggests, then I am impressed.
It seems that they follow in the footsteps of good ole Archimedes: http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www//experi...desResult.html

I am intrigued by your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Don't expect replacement of missiles etc with lasers very soon. Laser is (at the moment) good weather weapon. Sandstorm, snow or just rain have nasty effects on usefullness.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by kraznyi_oktjabr

Don't expect replacement of missiles etc with lasers very soon. Laser is (at the moment) good weather weapon. Sandstorm, snow or just rain have nasty effects on usefullness.

Beat me to it. I was just about to suggest that, instead of mirrors or more armor, a good cloud of seawater mist projected around the ship should do nicely to break up the laser's cohesion.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Remarkable, isn't it? In a little less than a scant century-and-a-half, we've gone from muzzle-loading cannons with maximum ranges of but a few hundred yards that needed to be fired en-masse to sink a wooden ship, to massive 16-inch battleship cannons that could lob a shell the size of a Volkswagen twenty miles and gouge a crater as wide as a football field, to lethal cruise missiles that can guide themselves onto a target hundreds of miles away, to a multimillion-dollar laser that can ignite an inflatable motorboat, but only if it's within line-of-sight. Now that's progress!

[Feuer Frei!]

The big test here was to see if they could hit a moving target, whilst moving.
Previous testing has been stationary targets, whilst stationary.
Other than that it isn't ground-breaking.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I am intrigued by your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I would imagine that the range of this device would be naturally limited by the curvature of the Earth, unless they could work out some way to make it into an arc?

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I would imagine that the range of this device would be naturally limited by the curvature of the Earth, unless they could work out some way to make it into an arc?

A black-hole generator, maybe? Of course, if we had such a thing, we wouldn't need lasers.

I imagine the most practical application for this sort of thing would be air and missile defense. IIRC the article mentions that. Even so, as FF! points out, the groundbreaking bit was that they hit a moving target from a moving platform. One would not imagine that to be difficult with a laser, but apparently it is. If our technology is so limited that we consider the above to be groundbreaking, I humbly suggest that we invest our resources into something a little more practical, like screen doors for submarines.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I would imagine that the range of this device would be naturally limited by the curvature of the Earth, unless they could work out some way to make it into an arc?

Yes and another little thing is atmosphere itself. Air contains a lot small dust particles and water which naturally limits range. Ofcourse you can compensate by increasing power to shoot to longer range but before or later question of feasibility sneaks in from shadows.

[GoldenRivet]

While interesting, i would like to point out a few of things.

1. this is a very early test

2. the laser really takes about a full minute to do any significant damage

3. the target boat was more or less a stationary target. (it was doing what... 2 knots?)

in reality, you would be trying to carefully aim this weapon at a moving ship in pitching and rolling seas.

Im sure this was a very early proof of concept test.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

While interesting, i would like to point out a few of things.

1. this is a very early test

2. the laser really takes about a full minute to do any significant damage

3. the target boat was more or less a stationary target. (it was doing what... 2 knots?)

in reality, you would be trying to carefully aim this weapon at a moving ship in pitching and rolling seas.

Im sure this was a very early proof of concept test.

Well the Wright Flyer was not very impressive, but in 15 years cities were being bombed from the air.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I would imagine that the range of this device would be naturally limited by the curvature of the Earth, unless they could work out some way to make it into an arc?

If we start getting in to particle beam weapons than mabye. Other than that a mirrior in space or high up could be used to reflect a properly configured beam (configured as to not damage the mirrior).

Originally Posted by Growler

Beat me to it. I was just about to suggest that, instead of mirrors or more armor, a good cloud of seawater mist projected around the ship should do nicely to break up the laser's cohesion.

possably one of the worst things someone could do. The laser would vaporise the water in to steam and then send it back twoards the target.