2023-08-01 13:03:54
Lockheed Martin has just announced that it is inflating its laser cannon to increase it from 300 to 500 kW while maintaining its compactness and reduced mass. It will be the most powerful laser weapon in existence.
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Shooting down a missile or a drone at the speed of light using a laser weapon is what several armies, including France, are trying to do. The benefits are many. First, there is no need to carry ammunition, with the logistics and dangers associated with explosives. No need to produce this ammo either. Finally, the operating cost of a shot would be limited to one euro. But, until now, the use of these laser weapons remained difficult to envisage.
They were not compact and light enough to be used. These concerns are more or less resolved, but there remains the problem of power. Until recently, lasers might only “fry” small drones. But last year, Lockheed Martin had already developed a powerful 300 kW gun. It was a model equivalent to that produced for the US Navy. The latter had managed to shoot down a large drone which was used to simulate a missile attack.
Today, Lockheed Martin has just announced that it is upgrading this laser cannon to 500 kW. To achieve this, the manufacturer has also just signed a new contract with the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and American Engineering. This will make it the strongest laser cannon around.
The industrialist plans to manage to equip with a powerful and light laser cannon, not only ground vehicles, or ships, but also combat planes, in order to neutralize missiles. © Lockheed Martin
A lightweight, compact, powerful laser cannon
Increasing the power of a laser cannon remains very complicated. To achieve 300 kW, it was necessary to completely rethink the technology. Thus, on other laser guns, to generate a destructive beam, it was necessary to combine several so-called fiber (optical) laser emitters, the rays of which are concentrated into one. The big concern is that this type of laser heats up a lot, which limits its power to a range of 30 to 100 kilowatts in the best case. The weapon is then just enough to shoot down small drones, or mortar ammunition.
In the case of the Lockheed Martin cannon, the principle remains the same, with optical fiber coils doped with aluminum garnet and an alloy of yttrium and neodymium. It’s the lens system that differs to concentrate more power, without overheating. The firm does not say more regarding its method of boosting the power to 500 kW, but it claims that this gain does not affect the size or weight of the weapon in any way.
The assembly is integrated into a system which includes a laser to acquire the target and lock it, and another laser which is used to measure the atmospheric distortion to make the shot precise. This transportable, small and powerful weapon would equip different types of vehicles. Thus, Lockheed Martin had carried out a test of carrying a laser cannon on an aircraft two years ago. This flying laser cannon is intended to neutralize surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles during an interception. France is also developing this type of weapon system. Much less powerful, a laser cannon was recently tested by the French Navy on a moving frigate to neutralize small drones.
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