[NOISE] What is "laser material"?

[Steven Weller]

>At 4:05 AM 4/26/96, Bill Frantz wrote:
>
>>>   Moreover, a laser shot costs $3,000, compared to several
>>>   million dollars for a missile. Army officials envision the
>>>   Nautilus would be beamed from a truck capable of firing 50
>>>   shots before requiring more laser material.
>>
>>Does anyone have any idea what "more laser material" means?
>>
>
>Sure, most high-power lasers like this are chemical lasers, consuming
>reactive materials.
>
>(This is not the same as "gas lasers," a la the early CO2 lasers. And of
>course ruby and Nd-YAG lasers are not what is meant here, either.)
>
>P.S. I don't place much faith in laser weaponry. Some obvious
>countermeasures are: spin the projectile to minimize heating of any one
>spot, determine the wavelength of the planned laser and coat the projectile
>with a suitably reflective coating, apply ablative layers that can burn off
>without harm, etc. Such countermeasures are of course well-known to the
>laser builders, but they still make the game much tougher. All a matter of
>attack and counter-attack, and the costs of each. Like castles and siege
>engines. Or like crypto.
>
>--Tim May

Other problems include tracking the missile accurately for the one or two
seconds (that's likely to be a mile or so if it's anything like a Scud) and
handling the dispersive effect of the air temperature gradient caused by
the laser itself.


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