Laser wepions to be mounted on US navy ships

[commissarmoody]

http://news.yahoo.com/navys-laser-weapon-blasts-bad-215808231.html

An article on a new Laser that is to be mounted on US Navy ships.

[Brummie Thug]

Interesting Read 

[Slayer]

yeah was on the news here in NZ, way of the future....

[commissarmoody]

I know right? Great tell the battery conks out 

[cdr]

the German are at it as well 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2259639/The-groundbreaking-Star-Wars-laser-shoot-drone-sky-TWO-MILES-away.html

Carl

[Conquistador]

I know right? Great tell the battery conks out 

If the ship loses electrical power The laser might not be your only problem...

Gracias,

Glenn

[Vanvlak]

I really would like to know whether these work in fog, rain or snow. Each drop of moisture or snow flake should absorb and reflect part of the beam, and if the distance is great - in fact the problem would be more intense if targeting is done with another beam of lower power, which would be more easily scattered...

[zizi666]

If it carries enough energy to burn through metal, wouldn't it vapourise all the water it encounters, and if the targetting beam is projected under the energy beam, wouldn't it stay free of the problems you mention ?

[Vanvlak]

If it carries enough energy to burn through metal, wouldn't it vapourise all the water it encounters, and if the targetting beam is projected under the energy beam, wouldn't it stay free of the problems you mention ?

The targeting beam would go before to acquire the target and be easier to scatter - there were problems with this in some laser guiding systems. Might not even work in cloud - and this point is relevant, as I doubt they'd have developed a weapon stopped by cloud. My argument, as they say, is invalid - or at least should be!
As for the energy beam - if a target is, say 5km away, a thick mist would, I believe, scatter/absorb, deflect the beam to such an extent as to prevent it from being effective - although the analogy is far from ideal, a small cloud of an inch or so depth of vapourised aluminium over an aluminium plate plays haywire with a laser process. Same argument as above re validity. I guess......