Looking for Insight into an Obscure Type of Military Laser

[LargeGrayCat]

I’m writing a story about warfare several decades in the future. While I was doing research into possible directed-energy weapons, I came across something interesting. I don’t know if there is a name for the whole concept but it can be generally described as the use of brief laser pulses to generate bursts of plasma either upon contact with a target or in the air near it. The major difference between this type of weapon and what we commonly think of as laser weapons is that the main method of destruction is the shock wave generated by the burst of plasma rather than thermal damage caused by the laser itself.

As far as the real world is concerned, there has been DoD interest in this concept. Projects have been conducted and grants as well as patents exist. I’ve included links to some information on the different examples I’ve found…

The PEP (Pulsed Energy Projectile) and the PIKL (Pulsed Impulsive Kill Laser)
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/pep.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20011114035512/http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/smallarms/Moore.pdf
https://www.wired.com/2008/09/pulsed-laser-fi/
https://www.wired.com/2008/01/laser-for-micro/

PASS (Plasma Acoustic Shield System)
https://www.popularmechanics.com/mi...entagons-wall-of-light-laser-shield-15008409/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11723-plasma-shield-may-stun-and-disorientate-enemies/
https://www.wired.com/2007/05/plasma-shield-m/

An SBIR grant for investigation into making a “man-portable integrated laser assault rifle” - interestingly enough, this was given to Stellar Photonics, the same company responsible for the aforementioned PASS.
https://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/317810
https://www.wired.com/2007/04/plasma-pulse-la/

SCUPLS (Scalable Compact Ultrashort Laser Pulse System)
https://www.dsiac.org/tags/scalable-compact-ultra-short-pulse-laser-system-scupls

Here’s an interesting article that touches on some of the above devices in general…
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a25091957/plasma-weapon-history/

Now, I’ve saved the most interesting and by far the most ambitious of these ideas for last. It comes in the form of this patent.
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/17/ac/b7/57153e69adac04/US20030233931A1.pdfAll of this leads to my questions… Is this a viable concept? It certainly seems to have some merit… If so why isn’t more research into it being done?

If one day it were to work, how would it change warfare? How small could the weapons be made? How would it be employed - on the ground, in the sea, and in the sky? Would it shoot down artillery shells and rockets - perhaps even bullets? Would it render aircraft as we know them obsolete? Etc. What countermeasures or defenses, if any, can you imagine might be used against it? Most importantly, what would warfare look like between two world powers each armed with these types of weapons? I’d love to hear everyone’s opinions.

Also, I’m an aspiring writer and not a expert on this topic by any stretch of the imagination. Please forgive me if I’ve misunderstood the nature of these devices or sounded like a fool in general, I welcome any corrections.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[mfb]

The DoD gives some money for basically everything that is not directly violating physical laws. Small chance to work but potentially a nice use if it works.

Lasers need a lot of power. Not such a big deal for ships, for example, but it makes miniaturization difficult. For science fiction this is not an issue.

You still have the aim the laser at whatever you want to shoot at. Bullets are probably too fast. In addition just stunning them doesn't work - you have to break them apart at least to increase their air resistance.

 

[LargeGrayCat]

You’re definitely right that the weapon still has to be aimed. However, I’m not sure this would be as difficult as it might seem (things like stealth technology and electronic warfare aside). The technological capacity to intercept ballistic missile warheads has been present since the late 1950s (albeit with poor accuracy) and has matured to the point where our current interceptors don’t require large warheads, rather, they’re “hit-to-kill”. Obviously this is in the much larger arena of missile defense but systems like the American Phalanx and the Soviet/Russian Kashtan CIWS (close in weapon systems) have been around since the eighties for the protection of ships for missiles. Recently, we’ve seen systems somewhat like this that are designed to protect tanks and other armored vehicles from rockets and tank shells. Examples being the famous Israeli Trophy system and the lesser known American Iron Curtain.

As a whole, the concept of using lasers for this type of thing would be suspicious if we weren’t starting to see various fairly viable prototypes. For example, the Israeli Iron Beam system and the American-Israeli THEL- both of which were tested successfully against rockets and artillery shells - though neither have actually been deployed.

As for breaking the bullets apart, the operative principle of this weapon (as I understand it) is not to “stun” the bullet/missile or destroy it in flight. It is merely to damage it or knock it off course with the shock wave. A tank shell will not pierce the armor of an enemy tank if it hits it sideways. A bullet will cause much less penetrative destruction if it is tumbling in flight. And missiles and aircraft are fairly delicate machines - not built to withstand sudden and violent “hammer blows”. These are the uses detailed for these types of lasers in the final and most interesting link.

 

[member 656954]

Also, I’m an aspiring writer and not a expert on this topic by any stretch of the imagination.

LOL, nobody is an expert on this, @LargeGrayCat, because the weapon does not yet exist!

When is your story going to be set? Make it enough years into the future and you can basically write it up however you like. In terms of countermeasures, you could get creative with force fields or even some kind of gravitational beam that bends the laser beam away. If you want to stick with physics that is not entirely made-up, then mirrored surfaces, ablation surfaces, or some kind of aerosol spray might be used.

 

[essenmein]

I’m writing a story about warfare several decades in the future. While I was doing research into possible directed-energy weapons, I came across something interesting. I don’t know if there is a name for the whole concept but it can be generally described as the use of brief laser pulses to generate bursts of plasma either upon contact with a target or in the air near it. The major difference between this type of weapon and what we commonly think of as laser weapons is that the main method of destruction is the shock wave generated by the burst of plasma rather than thermal damage caused by the laser itself.

Bit curious how they would have the beam just make a plasma pop in the air near the target, and not all of the air between the target and the laser.

If the plasma pop if due to rapid ablation of the target where the laser hits, then sounds an awful lot like what a plain old pulsed laser weapon would do!

So can it work? absolutely.

How small can it be? depends on how advanced the power sources are and how much damage you want it to do. If you have back back size fusion reactors, I imagine your hand held pulsed laser could be quite devastating (wear welding mask though, the scattered light from it would likely be many many bad for you), keep in mind unless the hand held thing was a turret that you put on the ground with some advanced targeting systems, I doubt you'll be hitting an artillery shell mid flight with a hand held anything!

In terms of counter measures, usability etc, keep in mind its basically a bright beam of light, so clouds, dust, air temp differences (diffraction) etc are all going to make it less effective.

If you are firing straight laser pulses, I think you are also directly giving away your position to anyone watching, so you fire once, your enemy locks on to that location, shower it with buck shot artillery (ie overwhelm its defensive capability with shear number of projectiles) good bye laser defense...

I think they research this stuff more "just in case" rather than "this is the future", as much as I dislike it, mass drivers (eg rail gun) are far more likely to be an effective weapons than any laser gun.