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Post by treptoplax on Mar 28, 2018 15:01:56 GMT
I've posted on this before , but here's a new good article on state of the art in military fiber lasers, which are much more efficient than the laser generators we have in CoaDE (!): Fiber Lasers Mean Ray Guns Are Coming That system combined 96 beams of 300 W each at different wavelengths into a single beam with a total power of 30 kW. The lasers produce higher-quality beams when run at such relatively low powers, and it is easier to combine their output to produce a high-power beam than to build a single high-power laser with the same beam quality, says Afzal.
Lockheed scaled that technology to 60 kW in a laser it delivered to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Systems Command, in Huntsville, Ala., last year for installation in a battlefield-ready military truck. That laser “set a world record for [weapons-grade] solid-state laser efficiency, in excess of 40 percent,” claims Adam Aberle, lead of the command’s high-energy laser technology development and demonstration.
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Post by Kerr on Mar 29, 2018 23:21:25 GMT
I've posted on this before , but here's a new good article on state of the art in military fiber lasers, which are much more efficient than the laser generators we have in CoaDE (!): Fiber Lasers Mean Ray Guns Are Coming That system combined 96 beams of 300 W each at different wavelengths into a single beam with a total power of 30 kW. The lasers produce higher-quality beams when run at such relatively low powers, and it is easier to combine their output to produce a high-power beam than to build a single high-power laser with the same beam quality, says Afzal.
Lockheed scaled that technology to 60 kW in a laser it delivered to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Systems Command, in Huntsville, Ala., last year for installation in a battlefield-ready military truck. That laser “set a world record for [weapons-grade] solid-state laser efficiency, in excess of 40 percent,” claims Adam Aberle, lead of the command’s high-energy laser technology development and demonstration.
Oh, my sweet summer child. A quick glance of the holy and blessed lasers. We are already hitting 50% in labs using fiber optics lasers, and DARPA is currently working on 80% efficient laser diodes. Hell, alfalight managed to build a 73% efficient laser diode in 2006.
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Post by thejustwriter on Apr 2, 2018 1:46:20 GMT
I've posted on this before , but here's a new good article on state of the art in military fiber lasers, which are much more efficient than the laser generators we have in CoaDE (!): Fiber Lasers Mean Ray Guns Are Coming That system combined 96 beams of 300 W each at different wavelengths into a single beam with a total power of 30 kW. The lasers produce higher-quality beams when run at such relatively low powers, and it is easier to combine their output to produce a high-power beam than to build a single high-power laser with the same beam quality, says Afzal.
Lockheed scaled that technology to 60 kW in a laser it delivered to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Systems Command, in Huntsville, Ala., last year for installation in a battlefield-ready military truck. That laser “set a world record for [weapons-grade] solid-state laser efficiency, in excess of 40 percent,” claims Adam Aberle, lead of the command’s high-energy laser technology development and demonstration.
Honestly, the existence of fiber-optic lasers is why I insist on using CE:LLF lasers with the community materials pack; I refuse to use any laser less efficient than current IRL equipment.
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Post by Kerr on Apr 2, 2018 13:04:12 GMT
I've posted on this before , but here's a new good article on state of the art in military fiber lasers, which are much more efficient than the laser generators we have in CoaDE (!): Fiber Lasers Mean Ray Guns Are Coming That system combined 96 beams of 300 W each at different wavelengths into a single beam with a total power of 30 kW. The lasers produce higher-quality beams when run at such relatively low powers, and it is easier to combine their output to produce a high-power beam than to build a single high-power laser with the same beam quality, says Afzal.
Lockheed scaled that technology to 60 kW in a laser it delivered to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Systems Command, in Huntsville, Ala., last year for installation in a battlefield-ready military truck. That laser “set a world record for [weapons-grade] solid-state laser efficiency, in excess of 40 percent,” claims Adam Aberle, lead of the command’s high-energy laser technology development and demonstration.
Honestly, the existence of fiber-optic lasers is why I insist on using CE:LLF lasers with the community materials pack; I refuse to use any laser less efficient than current IRL equipment. Yea no, the problem with our modern lasers is that they use diodes as a pumping source, they can already efficiencies as high as 60% in existing laser weapons, problem is that they need to be cooled at 350K max. You could probably heat pump an 65% ytterbium-fiber laser to 1000K and still have 33% efficiency. In that regard, Holmium lasers are actually more realistic. Although if you reduce outlet down to 700K you could get by with 40% efficiency. Getting Holmium/Ce:LLF like efficiency is still easily achievable within the next two decades. The other problem is mass, the best we have at the moment is 4 kilogram per kilowatt laser power, but this includes a liquid cooling system, a battery bank, and the support structure. And that system was published 2015, meaning it might be already 5 years old in terms of technology. But, certain lasers already achieve power densities in the realm of multiple kW per kilogram. So yea, go with it.
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Post by Pttg on Apr 25, 2018 18:33:47 GMT
All of this leads me to suspect that CoaDE is simply not sufficient for simulating real space combat -- we'd probably see largely automated ships fighting with lasers at translunar ranges, cooking systems and crew slowly until one side surrenders.
Realistic missiles would almost always be too slow to cross the kill-zone of laser countermeasures... really the only non-laser combat looks like it'll be Q-ships and similar surprise attacks from supposedly allied or civilian vessels. Maaaaybe stealth missiles would be a thing, with the idea being not so much to hide the existence of the missile, rather just make it hard to target until it gets close enough for the neutron flux to be fatal.
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Post by L5Resident on Apr 26, 2018 13:52:00 GMT
All of this leads me to suspect that CoaDE is simply not sufficient for simulating real space combat -- we'd probably see largely automated ships fighting with lasers at translunar ranges, cooking systems and crew slowly until one side surrenders. Realistic missiles would almost always be too slow to cross the kill-zone of laser countermeasures... really the only non-laser combat looks like it'll be Q-ships and similar surprise attacks from supposedly allied or civilian vessels. Maaaaybe stealth missiles would be a thing, with the idea being not so much to hide the existence of the missile, rather just make it hard to target until it gets close enough for the neutron flux to be fatal. In the next 10 years if Mike Griffin gets his way we'll see Megawatt class space based laser www.defensedaily.com/dods-griffin-eyes-using-directed-energy-space-based-missile-defense/ We'll hopefully see space based ASAT/ABM lasers by the mid 2030's. That also means we could see laser launch becoming a thing after that.
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Post by treptoplax on Apr 26, 2018 19:39:26 GMT
All of this leads me to suspect that CoaDE is simply not sufficient for simulating real space combat -- we'd probably see largely automated ships fighting with lasers at translunar ranges, cooking systems and crew slowly until one side surrenders. Realistic missiles would almost always be too slow to cross the kill-zone of laser countermeasures... really the only non-laser combat looks like it'll be Q-ships and similar surprise attacks from supposedly allied or civilian vessels. Maaaaybe stealth missiles would be a thing, with the idea being not so much to hide the existence of the missile, rather just make it hard to target until it gets close enough for the neutron flux to be fatal. Casaba howitzers (essentially nuclear shaped charges, which you can't *quite* simulate with CDE) might well make non-stealth missiles feasible - their theoretical range is pretty impressive.
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