Northrup opens ray-gun factory

[Lonestar]

Set Phaser to "liquidate"

by Staff Writers
Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2007
Northrop Grumman Corporation today opened a specialized facility exclusively for system integration and production of high-energy laser systems for military uses - the first of its kind by private industry in the United States. Located at the Space Technology sector's Space Park campus, the Directed Energy Production Facility is specifically designed for the production of high-energy, solid-state lasers and their integration onto military vehicles.

"Powerful military lasers, with their speed-of-light targeting capabilities and cost-effective operation, have the potential to transform the way we equip our armed forces defending our country abroad and protecting it at home against terrorist threats," said Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector.

Noted Mike McVey, president of the company's Directed Energy Systems business area, "This new facility shows our commitment to directed energy systems for the military and reinforces our industrial leadership in all of the laser systems we build. This facility is an example of our long-term commitment to being the premier provider of high-energy lasers to the U.S. government, and it demonstrates our vision of how we will achieve that goal."

The first work in the facility will be for Phase 3 of the Joint High-Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) program, which will build and demonstrate the first 100 kW solid-state laser sufficient for a variety of force protection battlefield and precision strike missions. The facility also will house other laser systems the company is spearheading.

The facility will provide the capability to produce current and future generation technologies of lasers including fiber lasers even more powerful than 100kW. There will also be an integration area where electric lasers are integrated onto various military platforms, such as armored combat vehicles. With class 1,000 clean rooms and integrated laser safety systems, the facility can produce multiple laser systems at the same time.

[Tattila the Hun]

Laser-Phalanx

[Zkribbler]

So just how powerful are these lasers? Could they, say, light a candle?

[Traianvs]

transform the way we equip our armed forces defending our country abroad and protecting it at home against terrorist threats

FFS, when will anything in the world not be related to combating terrorists

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
So just how powerful are these lasers? Could they, say, light a candle?

100kW is on the order of a thousand times as powerful as a regular light bulb, with the bonus that all of the light is collimated.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Traianvs
FFS, when will anything in the world not be related to combating terrorists

I work for the military doing research in compiler optimizations, and one of the biggest challenges I face is trying to explain how compilers combat terrorism.

[Nostromo]

In related news, the Navy is developing an electromagnetic railgun

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/generaltechnology/64669aa138b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Picture this: A massive destroyer receives the location coordinates of an enemy headquarters more than 200 miles away. Instead of launching a million-dollar Tomahawk cruise missile, it points a gun barrel in the direction of the target, diverts electric power from the ship’s engine to the gun turret, and launches a 3-foot-long, 40-pound projectile up a set of superconducting rails. The projectile leaves the barrel at hypersonic velocity—Mach 7-plus—exits the Earth’s atmosphere, re-enters under satellite guidance, and lands on the building less than six minutes later; its incredible velocity vaporizes the target with kinetic energy alone.

The U.S. Navy is developing an electromagnetic railgun that will turn destroyers into super-long-range machine guns—able to fire up to a dozen relatively inexpensive projectiles every minute. The Navy is collaborating with the British Ministry of Defence, which has a similar effort under way. In 2003, its facility in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, hosted a 1/8-scale test of an electromagnetic railgun that produced stable flight in a projectile fired out of the barrel at Mach 6. But Capt. Roger McGinnis, program manager for directed energy weapons at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., estimates the U.S. version won’t be “deliverable” until 2015 at the earliest.

The technology behind the electromagnetic railgun has been around for more than 20 years, but early efforts wilted because of the huge power requirements: No ship could generate or store enough electricity to fire the gun. The concept was revived a few years ago when the Navy announced plans for its next-generation battleship, the all-electric DD(X). “In the past, destroyers had 90 percent of their power tied to propulsion,” explains McGinnis. “But with DD(X), you can divert the power to whatever you need. We can stop the ship and fire the railgun as many times as we need, then divert the power back to the screws.”

The barrel of the electromagnetic railgun will contain two parallel conducting rails about 20 feet long, bridged by a sliding armature. In the current design, electric current travels up one rail, crosses the armature, and heads down the second rail. The loop induces a magnetic field that pushes the armature, and the projectile aboard it, up the rails.

The challenges that remain include ensuring that the gun can target enemy sites with precision, and creating equipment that can withstand the gargantuan pressures the gun will create. “Right now, guns are only as accurate as the targeting of the bore, and now we’re talking about 200-plus-mile ranges, so there has to be aerodynamic correction,” says Fred Beach, the assistant program manager for the electromagnetic railgun at Naval Sea Systems Command. The projectile, he says, will receive course correction information from satellites and will steer itself with movable control surfaces. And because the projectile will be subjected to up to 45,000 Gs during firing, the onboard electronics must be strengthened to withstand the acceleration. Forces inside the gun itself—particularly getting the armature to move easily within the system—are also challenging the designers. “Getting two pieces of metal to slide past each other is pretty hard—we’re getting a lot of damage to the rails,” Beach says.

The electromagnetic railgun’s projectiles will cover 290 miles in six minutes—initially traveling 8,200 feet per second and hitting their target at 5,000 feet per second. Current Navy guns, which shoot powder-ignited explosive shells, have a maximum range of 12 miles and, because they are unguided, are difficult to aim. Though guided missiles, the current long-range alternative for destroyers, can achieve ranges comparable to that of the electromagnetic railgun, their cost and storage problems are what’s driving the efforts to find an alternative. Ships can only carry up to 70 guided missiles and must return to port to restock because the missiles cannot be loaded at sea, whereas railgun projectiles can easily be loaded at sea, and by the hundreds. Also appealing is that the electromagnetic railgun’s missiles do not contain volatile explosives; the weapon does its work with kinetic energy.

[chequita guevara]

All that creative talent wasted find new and improved ways to kill more humans.

[Kuciwalker]

Actually they don't necessarily care so much about killing people as destroying equipment.

[Nostromo]

Engineers are prostitutes. If the price is right, they'll do what you ask.

[loinburger]

Yup, it's kind of silly to shoot people with lasers instead of bullets. "Alas, the enemy has cauterized the wound it inflicted upon me!"

edit: x-post

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
All that creative talent wasted find new and improved ways to kill more humans.

It's where the money is.

Ain't Capitalism grand?


Come to think of it...that sorta thing is common in communist countries too

[pchang]

Don't you know...

Anything is justifiable if it leads to the elimination of the bourgeoise.

[Lonestar]

Re: Don't you know...

Originally posted by pchang
Anything is justifiable if it leads to the elimination of the bourgeoise.

Oh, right. Sorry.

[Straybow]

Kinetic weapons are da shizzle! Pop a cap in da terrorists, yo!