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TheNocturnalEgyptian
2nd March 2011, 12:19 PM
The US Air Force has made an appeal for a range of new technologies which it will need in building its planned new arsenal of aerial rayguns. In particular, it wants large artificial optically-correct diamonds for use as portholes through which to shoot electropulse microwave blaster cannons.

Under its "Directed Energy [Weapon] Materials Program," the US Air Force Research Laboratory asked on Monday for a whole sheaf of materials miracles. The most eye-catching, we'd say, is the "High Power Microwave Windows First Category" solicitation (Word doc).


In it, the Air Force raygun boffins candidly state their desire for high-power microwave (HPM) weapons of "one megawatt or more" - in the same league power-wise as the heaviest military rayguns now in existence, and ten times the poke normally seen as essential to an entry-level laser weapon.

HPM rayguns, however, aren't intended for burning holes in stuff or people. They are intended to deliver the same sort of effects as the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted by a nuclear bomb, without the need for the bucket-o-sunshine side effect and in the form of a directed beam rather than an omnidirectional zapping.

Nuke EMPs are well-known to be capable of frying or scrambling all unshielded circuitry from a substantial distance, and military electronic-warfare types have long hankered to have this sort of capability in less-drastic form.

Hence the desire for conventional HPM weapons, which have been expected in bomb format for ages. But a non-exploding raygun style of HPM is also an aspiration, and in this case, it seems that a major snag is the "window" - the gunport in the fuselage of the plane, nose of the weapons pod etc. - through which the electropulse blast is to be fired.
The windows are required not only to transmit the needed energy; they also need to be able to survive thermal transients and high electric fields without operational loss and without significant defocus of energy. Mechanical and physical properties must be adequate to provide the needed performance and survivability.

Apparently, the only stuff known to the Air Force labs which will do is "optical diamond". They want this to be cheaper, tougher, bigger and made in the US of A.

They specify that people wanting to supply pulse-blaster gunport diamonds must be able to make ones 2.5 inches across and able to withstand 11 atmospheres of pressure - as much as the lens of a cheap waterproof watch.

Another interesting requirement (Word doc) thrown out as part of the energy-weapons materials push was this one, in which the Air Force boffins express their dissatisfaction with present-day high energy lasers - proper blasters for blowing stuff up and burning holes in people. The current technology - for instance the jumbo jet nuke-nobbler laser project - uses chemically-fuelled lasers, and the limitations of these are given in some detail:
Such high power lasers suffer from... flight instability (ie vibration, moving parts), limited "shot magazine" (6-10 shot per useable "laser fuel"), long reload times (~4 minutes typically), and low laser power-to-system weight ratios (5 Watts/Lb versus desired 90 Watts/Lb*).

Even the next-gen solid state lasers - lately dubbed "the first production line energy weapons" to much fanfare - are still crap, it seems.
Second generation High Energy Laser (HEL) systems are migrating to solid state/solid host concepts such as the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL)... These technologies still suffer various technology problems [for instance] vibration is still a problem, beam alignment issues, pre-exit aperture free space beam propagation and, most importantly, thermal management issues.

The Air Force lab guys give it as their opinion that "ultimately, the optimal solution lies in the development of very high power fiber-based lasers and laser amplifiers". In this case, though, the Air Force Research Lab people haven't really got any idea what kind of supermaterial could be used to make the necessary fibres. Anyone who does should drop them a line.

Gaillo
2nd March 2011, 12:42 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o

mrnhtbr2232
2nd March 2011, 12:45 PM
GSUS never fails - great pull Nocturnal Egyptian. The Directed Energy Materials Program is one of those niches that has a lot of upside in the wrong hands from what I've read. Wright-Patterson AFB seems to be running on all cylinders to move on this - the FedBizOpps listing <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=e3c1bd55cc417de2b01137a3c94cfae7&_cview=0">Solicitation Number: BAA-09-11-PKM </a> is focused on a number of disciplines: materials science, optics, high energy physics - quite a lot of info there. Of course you know that the military application of such a weapon will scale down to law enforcement for retail use once perfected - power interruption of moving vehicles like shooting a handgun. They'll call it "being DARPA'ed"

Heimdhal
2nd March 2011, 02:56 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o


Some one human still has to fly it.

Low Pan
2nd March 2011, 03:02 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o


Some one human still has to fly it.


Humans are not needed if it is fitted for a Predator drone.

Heimdhal
2nd March 2011, 03:06 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o


Some one human still has to fly it.


Humans are not needed if it is fitted for a Predator drone.


Humans still fly those, too.

osoab
2nd March 2011, 03:16 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o


Some one human still has to fly it.


Humans are not needed if it is fitted for a Predator drone.


Humans still fly those, too.


Full on assault, huh? I don't think that would workout too well. Unless you figure out the specific grunts, but then once two or three are offed, someone would notice the correlation.

Heimdhal
2nd March 2011, 03:21 PM
Yep. We're screwed.

Anyone here want to run around the back woods with an AK taking pot shots against THIS kind of tech? :o


Some one human still has to fly it.


Humans are not needed if it is fitted for a Predator drone.


Humans still fly those, too.


Full on assault, huh? I don't think that would workout too well. Unless you figure out the specific grunts, but then once two or three are offed, someone would notice the correlation.


Not everyone in the military is anti-patriot. If things every hit the fan on that large of a scale, you might just start to see more mechanical or pilot errors cropping up.


"Oh, they got teh ray-gunz of supa' death....might as well just give up now" = instant win for TPTB without even firing a shot.

Book
2nd March 2011, 09:31 PM
The US Air Force has made an appeal for a range of new technologies which it will need in building its planned new arsenal of aerial rayguns. In particular, it wants large artificial optically-correct diamonds for use as portholes through which to shoot electropulse microwave blaster cannons.



Diamonds.

The USAF now expects us bankrupt taxpayers to buy them diamonds.

:oo--> :oo--> <--- two rolling eyes emoticons

drafter
2nd March 2011, 09:49 PM
All the wiz bang crap in the world can still be overwhelmed with superior numbers and determination at some point. WWII Germany was the most advanced military on the face of the earth yet still overwhelmed by superior numbers of lesser equiped militaries. Faced with a few million Chinese or even a large number or determined rednecks, technology can and will be overcome at some point.

The current "Occupations" around the world are perfect examples of being able to "zap" people with wiz bang super fantasticly guided crap, but still accomplish nothing for the most part.