"B2431" wrote in message
...
From: "Bjørnar Bolsøy" am
Date: 1/2/2004 5:42 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

(B2431) wrote in
:
From: "Bjørnar Bolsøy" am
Date: 1/2/2004 1:15 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:


With weight ever decreasing, does anyone know if there has
been/is a project on something like this:


http://members.rogers.com/biglasers/continuous/abl.html


..intended to replace this?


http://www.military.cz/usa/navy/weap...phalanx_en.htm




Regards...

Not likely. The ABL is designed to be fired in the clear air at
altitude. A ship borne version would face problems with smoke,
fog and sea spray interferance.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired


But impossible to overcome? I think there are som arguments
in favor:

1. A ship is a more stable platform than an airplane
2. The ABL's targets are houndreds of miles away, while
CIWS operate in less than a mile
3. More powerful lasers and advances in adaptive optics will
compensate for air distortions

For ship use it's not so much air "distortions" you have to
worry about as air "absorption." The wrong wave lengths
will be expend their energy quite quickly heating the air
instead of the target.

Good points.

I have no idea how die lasers work but I wonder how long they shelf life
of the
chemicals are. In the case of the airborne version they can be prepared
just
prior to flight. Again not an insoluable problem for boats.

Depends on the specific chemistry of laser.
However, solid state lasers are fast approaching the useful
power range and all you have to feed them is electricity.

When I mentioned sea spray I sould also have said rain. I don't know if
they
can be optically corrected for.

There's no amount of optical correction that will deal with absorption.
You simply have to have a laser wave length which is not too badly
absorbed in that environment. This in turn means that a weapons grade
laser at 30000ft may be totally unsuited for a surface combatant.

Weapons grade power levels out of lasers are hard, weapons grade
power levels at wave lengths chosen for reasons other than they
are easy to produce is much harder.