No.1076
Today, the United States is among a number of nations working to develop and field advanced directed energy weapons, or lasers, for a number of military applications.
Near the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union began experimenting with the idea of fielding a laser-equipped tank that could blind the targeting systems of inbound ballistic missiles or vehicles. Ultimately, two prototypes of the laser-armed 1К17 Сжатие, translated to “Compression,” were built, though they weren’t complete until the Soviet Union fell and was replaced by the new government of the Russian Federation.
Today, the United States is among a number of nations working to develop and field advanced directed energy weapons, or lasers, for a number of military applications. The U.S. Air Force recently announced its intentions to begin fielding lasers on their fighter platforms as soon as 2025, and the U.S. Navy began testing its latest laser, the MK 2 MOD 0, aboard the USS Portland in May of this year. But decades before these programs came to light, the Soviet Union was already exploring the idea of using lasers as a means of missile defense.
The Soviet strategy wasn’t to use these lasers to destroy incoming missiles like the applications in development today intend to. Instead, the Soviet laser tank aimed to blind or burn out the electro-optical sensors missiles used to find their targets. Once blinded or damaged, a missile would miss its intended target, whether that was the 1K17 or other nearby assets. Other planned applications included using the laser apparatus to blind heavy vehicles like tanks, making it impossible for them to aim and fire accurately.
No.1085
>>1076Lasers are the ultimate defensive weapon, if they are mass produced most post-ww1 military tech will be obsolete (tanks, planes, missiles, ever artillery) we will probably see a return to light infantry trench and subterranean wars, and perhaps chemical and biological weapons replacing nukes as WMDs of choice. While WW1 sucked this is a positive development as military technology will be in an equilibrium that favors defenders, compared to what it is today which favors a first strike aggressor.
No.1908
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-touts-new-generation-blinding-laser-weapons-2022-05-18/?taid=6284dfd68664e8000198592d&
>Russia on Wednesday said it was using a new generation of powerful lasers in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow's secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms.
>Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 unveiled an intercontinental ballistic missile, underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon and a laser weapon.
>Little is known about the specifics of the new laser. Putin mentioned one called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet who perished in mortal combat.
>Yury Borisov, the deputy prime minister in charge of military development, told a conference in Moscow that Peresvet was already being widely deployed and it could blind satellites up to 1,500 km above Earth.
>He said there were already more powerful systems than Peresvet that could burn up drones and other equipment. Borisov cited a test on Tuesday which he said had burned up a drone 5 km away within five seconds.
>"If Peresvet blinds, then the new generation of laser weapons lead to the physical destruction of the target - thermal destruction, they burn up," he told Russian state television.
>Asked if such weapons were being used in Ukraine, Borisov said: "Yes. The first prototypes are already being used there." He said the weapon was called "Zadira". No.2492
>>1908 Apparently they may be using them to counter US satellites that are sending targeting data to Ukraine, blinding their sensors and possibly burning out the delicate systems.
If you fire a laser at a camera first of all the camera won't see anything, second if the laser is strong enough the sensors will be damaged because they're sensitive. If the sensors get damaged the camera doesn't work and - the sattelite turns into one large hunk of useless (but expensive) metal.
No.2499
>>2492>>2492>Apparently they may be using them to counter US satellites that are sending targeting data to Ukraine, blinding their sensors and possibly burning out the delicate systems. What's the technical international law position on this, as if it matters?
If one country has a right to point a light sensor does the other country have a right to point a light emitter?
If satellites can be easily disabled in a kind of non destructive, deniable way it could change a lot.
No.2500
>>2499 I don't know about the legality of it, but the USA can't really complain in this situation, since they're engaged in a proxy conflict, then again they'll never miss a chance to bitch about Russia, no matter the cause. But since it's hard to prove, it's a pretty decent device… though it's not easy to do considering the power needed to fire a laser that far and keep the beam from scattering.
No.2504
Laseranon probably busted a nut to this news
No.2551
>>2504 I bet.
>>1908 >>2492 >The Financial Times writes that the Starlink Internet from Musk suddenly crashed at the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Rybar suggests that this is due to field tests of the Tirada electronic warfare system. Useful to see what kind of animal it is. I share with you. >"Tirada-2S" ("Tirada-2.3") - a complex of electronic warfare to destroy enemy communications satellites. The complex was created in two versions - mobile and stationary. Development work on the creation of the complex began in 2001 at the Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense No. 46 in Moscow. >In November 2017, Oleg Achasov, deputy head of the 46th Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense, announced that, as part of the weapons modernization program for 2018-2027, work would be completed on two projects of means of destroying communications satellites. These are the Rudolf mobile strike anti-satellite complex and the Tirada-2S mobile complex for electronic destruction of communication satellites. Personally I would prefer Musk pulling the plug for being insulted by the Ukrainian government. Much more entertaining that way.
No.2605
https://southfront.org/uk-tests-accuracy-power-of-its-dragonfire-laser-weapon/ >The British military has tested the DragonFire long-range laser-guided energy weapon. Prior to that, the ability of lasers to track a target and hit it was tested by a team of specialists from the developer company. The new tests included hitting targets at various distances.Yet another announced laser weapon nothingburger. How long until lasers become an actual utilized system outside of targeting lads?
No.2639
>>2605Diffusion of power in the atmosphere is bad.
Satellite vs satellite to avoid interference?
No.2640
>>2639You can overcome the atmospheric diffusion problem if you avoid heating up air.
That means that you can't put too much laser power into the same space.
Effective laser weapons will have a spread out array of millions of relatively weak lasers that form a combined beam that has a cone shape whose pointy end meets the thing that gets lasered.
No.2732
>>2640that requires a very sensitive piece of equipment to be meaningfully useful
No.2748
yoooooo woww
No.2791
>>2789This is the single most comprehensive archive on the internet right now.