The Office of Naval Research held its annual partnership with industry conference last week here in Washington, DC. The envelop-pushing Navy lab is particularly keen on developing game changing laser beam and hypervelocity rail gun weapons. Much of the available funding is for early phase modeling and simulation. Some of ONRs high-priority research areas include:
Solid-State Fiber Laser. Defined by ONR as: A laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements such as erbium, ytterbium, neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium and thulium. Okay. ONR says a fiber laser is the way to go for a 100 kW laser weapon that could fit into aircraft pods.
Free Electron Laser. A shipboard point defense weapon, the laser will fight off swarms of both high end anti-ship cruise missiles and low-tech, explosive laden small boats. The trick will be developing controllable laser beam strength for graduated lethality and speed of light engagement. An Innovative Naval Prototype program is scheduled to begin in 2010.
High-Power Microwave Directed Energy Weapons. A focused microwave beam transmits high levels of energy via concentrated radio waves that will knock out computers, sensors, most anything electronic. So far, ranges have been limited by weak projectors and a cluttered environment, but newer, compact high-power microwaves under development may eventually produce a destructive capability.
The Revolutionary Approach to Time-Critical Long Range Strike (RATTLRS) Program. An ONR, DARPA, Air Force and NASA collaboration, started in 2004, to build a faster than Mach 3 air-breathing cruise missile. ONR says building the high Mach turbine engine remains a challenge.
Next Generation Integrated Power Systems. With a multitude of power hungry electrical and automated systems, including propulsion, launchers, sensors, countermeasures and ultimately high-powered weapons, running simultaneously, shipboard power management and supply will require smaller, lighter, quieter, cooler running and stealthy batteries and generators. As with the rest of the world, the Navy seeks solutions to the battery limitation challenge.
Electromagnetic Railgun. A rail gun uses magnetic rails instead of an explosive charge to accelerate a solid projectile to super high velocities, around Mach 7, promising accurate strikes on targets out to 230 miles with damage inflicted by the projectiles kinetic impact. ONR set a world record this year with its laboratory gun for the highest electromagnetic muzzle energy launch of a projectile 10 megajoules (Im told a hand grenade is equivalent to somewhere around 1 megajoule). Drawing enough power — around 3 million amps per shot — to fire the guns remains a distinct challenge, particularly onboard smaller destroyer sized vessels. Finding strong enough material to build barrels that can stand up to repeated firings at such high muzzle energies pose another challenge.
ONR is funding research into enabling technologies for next generation air-launched missiles, including: new rocket motors using solid propulsion technologies, low erosion nozzles, pulse motors and advanced radomes designed for ultra-high speeds.
Laser-based Landing Aids. A new start (for 2009) Enabling Capability, the program will develop laser terrain video imaging that can spot obstacles or uneven terrain for helicopter pilots trying to land in brown-out conditions. The hoped for system will be compact, lightweight and rugged.
now that is just what we need
These lasers are effective, but if i think if we rely too much on them, we place our attack capability at risk of being obliterated by a simple EMP
Now, if the ONR could just develop a technology to keep Navy ship building, on budget & on time.
EMP? Double shielded cables, surge suppressors on all cables that don’t possess double shielding, metal enclosures, etc all proved effective against EMP. Now as to gamma/neutron flux, that is something that really damages electronics and suspect that most modern electronics would fail under the assault of hard radiation.
FYI, most if not all, military equipment is hardened against EMP. Civilian equipment isn’t hardened.
I’m an idiot in this field (of lasers that is), but doesn’t the brown out-condition mean that you can’t see visible light, therefore you can’t detect lasers etc.? Isn’t this the case for GPS vs. Laser guided munitions, due to cloud cover problems etc.?
Maybe it’s a laser of non-visible light? Microwave laser etc.?
Anyone able to clarify any more on this for me?
Here’s one laser based landing aid for brown-out conditions:
http://www.oads.com/landsafe.htm
Let’s see, under the upcoming Obama administration, the Navy will need to have “Green” laser’s driven by Wind and Solar Power. I wonder how well that is going to work? Can we make stealth Windmills yet? Can we shine the laser at the Solar Panel and still make electricty? Hummm
I’m worried that this laser stuff is a long way off and we may be pouring a lot of money down the old Pentagon Financial Rat Hole for this if we go at it in a huge way. This sounds like a Dream Program for those who are about to retire from the Military and are looking for “Contractor” & Consultant” jobs for a fun filled financially very rewarding, double dipping retirement!!
Remember what President Eisenhower said when he warned us about the MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. They are out to make money for themselves before they worry about this or any other nation.
During WW-II we purchased M-1 Carines from seveal manufactures for anywhere between $20–50 each, approx. Today,… we pay ONE MANUFACTURER $1,000+ for each and every M-16 variant and have been buying it for 40 years!!!! We only bought the M-1’s for 5 or 6!
What ever happaned to the economy of scale when it came to purchasing? GM pays $34.82 for each and every air bag put into the dash board of a Tahoe/Yukon/Suburban we assesmble at the plant here in Janesville, WI. (Iused to work there and we looked at the incoming invoice for a pallet of them!) They sell them to you, for $1,000+! (Good deal huh?) Economy of Scale Purchasing works for GM,… WHY NOT the Pentigon and we Taxpayers??! I bet we’ve bought more M-16’s than GM’s made of these 3 vehicles.
The laser idea is great but it’s not ready for prime time yet and until it is, we shouldn’t be banking on it and setting up huge spending programs until it is.
JD
JD
The Laser ideas are great. I’ve believed these were coming since I was in the fleet back in the early ‘80s and I heard about Reagan’s SDI.
The problem with lasers on a ship include fog, rain, or any kind of precipitation which could potentially make them completely useless, for obvious reasons.
The free-electron laser might be able to overcome those problems if it is tunable in frequency so that precipitation won’t interfere with the beam propagation.
JD
What ever happaned to the economy of scale when it came to purchasing
well if you work in a factory.….you are unions when we want more money more benefits every yr but want to work less and harder
its called communism oh and being a socalist spoiled brat
JD,
During WWII you could buy a hamburger for a nickel. Today you buy a Big Mac for like $2.50. So it’s like 50 times more expensive to buy a Big Mac today than in WWII. $20 then X 50 = $1000. It is called inflation.
One reason our other military programs cost so much money is that we don’t buy enough to benefit from economy of scale. When you buy 100 airplanes, that is not enough to take advantage of large scale industrial production. Thus, we pay more money for fewer aircraft.
These lasers and other weapons need to be researched. Whether they’ll ever make it to the field is irrelevant. Congress will probably cut funding before they ever have a chance to be fielded, but the knowledge we gain by just doing the research is invaluable. If even one of the above projects pans out and makes it into production (even if it is 15 years from now), it will give us a huge advantage over any competitor.
OK back to lasers i have to agree lasers have many limitations and advantages superior range and a infinate suply of ammo essentaly, but the fact that a cloud can weakin it is a sever limitation not to mention that a pressurized gas could be used as a defense not to mention with new heat resistant materials it kinda makes it a iffy thing though like rail guns theyd be superb space based ballistic missile/satelite defenses
In 1960, the top income tax on individuals was 92%, to top corporate tax rate was 52%.
I can’t find the percentage of US workforce in 1960 that were unionized, but it was certainly far higher than the 12% of today.
Health benefits were not only full coverage, but routinely included dental, and almost everyone had a pension and could afford to attain their version of American Dream.
So according to today’s standards the US was a communist state in 1960.
But, seriously, folks.
US corporations were best in the world in 1960. American workers prospered, a sole provider could actually support a family of four, and the worker could stay with one company for life, almost everyone had a living wage.
Why is today different? How is it that companies suddenly claim they can’t survive if they have to pay Americans a decent wage or provide benefits?
The answer is excessive greed. The CEO and shareholders (of public companies) are demanding huge margins of any company’s profits. They simply do not want to share with their employees. I am NOT against profits, I am against excessive profit-taking.
So they threaten us with moving to China if we don’t comply with salary give-backs or they take away benefits or absorb the pension fund.
Today we are told that it is folly to consider that the American Dream is a goal for anyone less than the CEO, or shareholders. We are told that we are ‘selfish brats’, for thinking that we should get paid as we did 40 years ago — a decent wage for our work.
We are told we are Communists for pursuing the American Dream.
For AEGIS cruisers & CV carriers only?
Biggest ships for Lasers.
& shore stations.
Reuse old Shore Forts for Lasers
No more BBs ready.
Old Sailor, congrats for staying on topic & for knowing something about it. Air & land based weapons as well as ship based ones will have to work in mist & in precip to be useful. There’s apparently ongoing research in using “blue green” lasers for underwater communication. I know next to nothing about the technology. If there is a wavelength(s) that will get through mist & precip, there’s probably not 1 that will both get through dust & hard kill a target. In other words, brownouts are probably not a solvable problem for laser weapons. FELs are theoretically tunable, but within a limited range. You’re not going to be able to go from thermal IR to X-rays. They may be looking at FELs because of the waste heat problem rather than the potential of tuning the beam.
Troll,
The average standard of living today is much much higher than it was in 1960. As much as you wish to idealize that time period, we are better off today. Save your “bleed the rich” philosophy for MoveOn.org.
Nice summation of the conference — one quibble — ONR is not a “Navy lab” — they fund Navy (actually Naval) labs, academia and industry and set priorities for research but they don’t really “do” research.
Vstress
“Now as to gamma/neutron flux, that is something that really damages electronics“
Unfortunately, it’s also rather distressingly damaging to the humans nearby. Besides which, generating large neturon or gamma flux as a weapon would be rather difficult on the battlefield, unless you just want to drop some cobalt 60 or something on the targets. Somehow, I doubt you’d see international or civilian approval of such weapons any time soon.
There is only one thing they forgot, more cow bell!
Ferin, we planned for that on one project I worked on. The plane lands, the dying crew gets off and a replacement crew boards to continue the mission. At that point equipment is more valuable than are people.
James, I am a worker in a metal shop in Europe,
and we earn 24$/hour.How in hell can you survive on 12$ over there?
Star Wars was the nickname given to the Reagan era anti-missile defense shield, but the US Navy looks like they will build the REAL STAR DESTROYER. Directed energy weapons have many obstacles to over come to be effective, least of which is range. Light energy weakens as it passes through a medium such as air. The lenses have to kept clean of salt spray, the lasing rods or medium has to be kept cooled (significantly if reused in rapid succession). This is a daunting task for our state of technology. Then there is the danger to the sailors firing the laser for both eye protection and with high power devices, penetration of body parts.
Good Luck Navy
I like lasers, they are very nice and they are very colorful and they can also be your friend.