Gentlemen, we have a Deathray.

[-Jrabbit]

To quote Arrian's sig...

grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

[Blaupanzer]

From the sound of it, it will be the small boats defeating the larger. Kind of USS Cole-style attacks by any shore based facility that has one, then send out the small boats to rescue or execute the survivors according to the prevailing philosophy.

[KrazyHorse]

Help a bit with the concept, please. Forget death rays. How does a beam of light, at any wattage and beam coherence, become useful against flying objects? If I hit an operating missile with an electro-magnetic beam, even briefly, I screw up its electronics and guidance systems and effectively block communications. If I light the thing up with this style of laser, do I have to stick with it long enough to begin to burn it or what?

What exactly do you mean by "electro-magnetic beam" and how does it differ from a laser?

[UnOrthOdOx]

What exactly do you mean by "electro-magnetic beam" and how does it differ from a laser?

Lasers fry holes into things. Electro Magnetic 'beams' just fry the electronics with out damaging the hulls. (Think of the EM pulse from "The Matrix" that fries the squid things)

Sticking with the missile analogy, the Laser detonates the missile's ordnance, an EM pulse/beam fries the missiles electronics...but that missile is still coming down SOMEWHERE. Might not explode on impact (depending on triggering mechanism) or be on target, but it's coming down.

[Lord Avalon]

105 kilowatts, babycakes.

[KrazyHorse]

Lasers fry holes into things. Electro Magnetic 'beams' just fry the electronics with out damaging the hulls. (Think of the EM pulse from "The Matrix" that fries the squid things)

Sticking with the missile analogy, the Laser detonates the missile's ordnance, an EM pulse/beam fries the missiles electronics...but that missile is still coming down SOMEWHERE. Might not explode on impact (depending on triggering mechanism) or be on target, but it's coming down.

It's almost as though you don't understand how stupid you sound.

[Krill]

This'll be a fun argument to watch...can you guys keep it up for the next 12 hours stright? I'll need some entertainment while working on lab reports.

[DanS]

What would the diameter of these lasers be at, say, 10,000 miles?

[Krill]

What would you expect to hit at 10,000 miles apart from dust molecules in space btw?

[KrazyHorse]

Insufficient data given in that article.

They give the beam quality but not its wavelength or minimal beam radius.

From the little modern optics I know those two pieces of info would be necessary.

[Krill]

I was thinking more along the lines of the horizon tbh. Ideally it'd be mounted on the Rockies or the Appalachian trail to give it the most view around the curvature of the Earth, and maybe somewhere in the middle of the US to give the best possible coverage of shooting down any nukes aimed at the main cities (thinking ballistic missiles here). On hitting nukes mounted on cruise missile etc...no chance in hell? By the time low flying missile got in range of the lasers they could have already been detonated to take out the missile defenses via EMP or just premature detonation to destroy the defenses outright before a second incoming missile takes out hte main objective.

[KrazyHorse]

I wasn't responding to you. I was responding to DanS.

[Krill]

And I wasn't responding to you either, just those voices in my head that were contemplating this idea.

Hey, it beats doing lab reports

[DanS]

What would you expect to hit at 10,000 miles apart from dust molecules in space btw?

Lots of interesting stuff. Solar sails. Elevator climbers. Rogue (or useful) asteroids.

[Elok]

It's almost as though you don't understand how stupid you sound.

It's pretty bad when even I knew he didn't know what he was saying.