MigBuster 2,884 Posted November 22, 2013 The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) is requesting information describing concepts for airborne laser systems for future air dominance platforms. The emphasis of this effort is to identify potential laser systems that could be integrated into a platform that will provide air dominance in the 2030+ highly contested Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environment. Of particular interest are laser systems that are expected to be at TRL 4 or higher by October 2014 and could be demonstrated at TRL 5 or higher by 2022. Laser and beam control systems are being investigated independent of platform in the flight regime from altitudes Sea Level to 65kft and speeds from Mach 0.6 to 2.5. Three categories of laser systems are being studied: 1. Low-power lasers for illuminating, tracking, targeting, and denying/defeating sensor threats. 2. Moderate- power laser protective weapons system. 3. High-power for laser weapons systems. https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=452e761675d8c05e5599115182696694&tab=core&_cview=0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Caesar 305 Posted November 22, 2013 Bastards! They must have overheard my lunch conversations! Actually, I'm kind of happy about that. I had mentioned "wouldn't it be cool if you could put, say, four lasers on each side of a 747 and fire a laser broadside at an enemy formation hundreds of miles away?" I was intrigued by the concept that whoever the laser commander was would get one of those ridiculous 18th century naval hats and make calls to the cabin like "RIGHT FULL RUDDER! PREPARE RIGHT LASER BROADSIDE!" Oh what an assignment that would be! It might sound like I'm screwing around - I'm not, I actually brought this up, just at Rome, not Kirtland. Looks like some other people had the same idea. Given, of course, that we were developing a counter ICBM and tactical laser before CANX-ing both, lasers for air dominance seems like a natural follow-on. For that much power, you'd need something like a passenger plane to hold the fuel cell - maybe that "laser broadside" isn't as funny as it sounds... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KJakker 908 Posted November 23, 2013 Lets hope that the Air Force does not render itself obsolete. I am remembering the Hammers Slammers series of military Sci-fi by David Drake. In those books all of the ground combat vehicles mounted energy weapons, be they tank canon, dedicated AAA, or the counterparts to auto cannons & machine guns, could hit targets in orbit and were networked into an integrated mobile air defense system. Any aircraft that flew higher than a hovercraft would be engaged and killed by any guns that had a line-of-sight the moment is was above the horizon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
