From time to time, different countries begin to stir their potential rivals with news of powerful lasers that are about to begin to incinerate all living and nonliving. In principle, all the presenters noted: we, China, the USA. "Laser tag" has long become something so familiar, and in this regard, I would like to speculate on the topic of how real and serious everything is.
The only thing that gets in the way is the slightly muffled sound of the circular saw coming from under the topic of lasers.
The USA took over the baton again. The video about the new "combat" laser, placed on the ship, excited those who did not understand this much. Understanding people chuckled skeptically, but the general mood was all in the good old style of "hurray !!!" Because American weapons will defeat everyone a priori.
We chuckle because people are skeptical and realistic, right? Well, and immediately began "analyzes": and who has a cooler laser, and who will be able to cut a tank tomorrow?
Well, I don’t know the tank, but the budgets are easy. Therefore, we can say that the era of cutting budgets with lasers has come.
Today many are trying to do this. The Americans, Germans, Chinese, Indians, British, Japanese are working in the sweat of their brow, and ours are also kind of in the subject.
The year before last, the Chinese lit quite well in the literal sense of the word, showing their LW-30 laser at the Zhuhai Airshow. They promised to burn with this laser not only drones, but even small boats.
Of course, the achievements of neighbors should be treated with a fair amount of skepticism, because a 30 kilowatt laser on a wheeled chassis is not bad, but it does not look very serious. About the same as the "laser assault rifle" ZKZM-500, which was supposed to burn out all living things at a distance of up to 800 meters.
Although the Chinese security forces have a non-lethal WJG-2002 rifle and are used for blinding.
I also found an "Iron Ray" in Israel, which escapes from the "Iron Dome". Well, everything they have there is iron … And also on the road. It seems like this beam should destroy something, irradiating it for 5 seconds. Then that's it, the batteries run out.
However, everything among the Israelis is so classified that apart from the declaration of successful tests, there is nothing more intelligible.
All these batteries and diesel generators don't look serious, to be honest. This also applies to "Peresvet". He puffed - that's all. Then we charge. Or the power plant must be close by. Atomic is desirable.
With the Americans, with their theme of placing lasers on ships, everything looks a little more serious. The ship is still a more stable energy platform than one or two trucks. And the power plant is many times steeper there.
The Americans are fine fellows, they got burned with the YAL-1A installation, which they stuffed into the Boeing-747-400F and with the help of which they were going to burn our ballistic missiles …
As a result, having slightly disgraced themselves and ditching a certain number of billions, the US military began to place lasers on ships.
And even (as National Interest writes) they tested (naturally, successfully) the LaWS (Laser Weapons System) somewhere in the Persian Gulf. Allegedly, they shot down a drone and used mines to do it. How deadly was it to the mines? I did not find any references.
We, as it were, also did not stand idle, and even at the turn of the collapse of the USSR, a laser suppression complex 1K17 "Compression" was recommended for adoption after testing. But the "Compression" was not a combat laser, but a means of countering optical and electronic devices.
But since the USSR was destroyed, no one really needed the "Compression" either. Now, based on 1K17, they have made MLK, a mobile laser complex with approximately the same characteristics, but smaller in size. Technology after all …
Well, and "Peresvet". It seems like we have such a complex.
Why "like"? Because everything is very secret. More secret than Poseidon and Petrel. If you believe Andrei Mitrofanov and his publication on the Voennoye Obozreniye website, absolutely nothing is known about Peresvet. Zero. Only all these "presumably, by analogy with foreign samples" and so on.
In general, this "setting on conditional combat duty" somewhere in Tmutarakan does not look more serious than American shots against mines.
And where there is doubt, there is criticism.
Here are the Chinese successes in the world amicably ridiculed. Didn't like the rifle. And by the way, everything is quite reasonable. Everyone who was able to play with lasers place them so that the power plant is close by. The Americans use the ship as a platform. And here is the battery. Not seriously.
In addition, all this hype around the laser from the point of view of smart people is worth absolutely nothing. From the experience of using the LCC, one can immediately say that such a laser as today can be used exclusively under ideal conditions.
Dust, sandstorm, rain, snow, fog, smoke - all this becomes an insurmountable obstacle for the laser. Sorry, this is physics that cannot be canceled in any way. And therefore, speaking about the possible defeat of a target by a laser, we are talking about working in conditions of ideal weather, line of sight and short distance. A short distance - because the scattering of a light beam in the atmosphere cannot be canceled either.
And here's the moment of truth: why bother driving huge sums of money into an openly unproductive means of defeat? Okay, a very large laser connected to a nuclear power plant will give a pulse and blind or melt a rocket from a distance of 10 km. And the average is battery-powered from 5 km. And the rocket in the old fashioned way will not blind, but simply destroy the target from the same 30-300 km. Easy, as they say, and at ease.
Yes, there is a nuance here. The laser beam does not require ballistic corrections, it is easier to aim at the target, it does not depend on many physical factors (curvature of the Earth, wind, gravity, and so on), it is faster than any missile. This is an advantage.
Well, and the relative cheapness of one "shot". Plus a rather large "ammunition load", if the power plant is nearby.
The disadvantages include the physical weather factors already mentioned above. Plus the fact that the laser delivers to the target many times less energy than a rocket or projectile. But, unlike a disposable projectile or rocket, a laser can affect a target for quite a long time. With possible adjustments.
The question of which is more, disadvantages or advantages, is still open. So far, lasers are very bulky and awkward systems. Five trucks "Peresvet" - what kind of mobility are we talking about?
We can say that today laser weapons are like aircraft carriers. A kind of elite affiliation, because the understanding and perception of the laser as a real weapon is still very far away.
Laser cannons with a megawatt power could provide destruction of the target, but a laser with a megawatt power - forget about compactness and efficiency. And a power of up to 50 kW is just to dazzle the demonstrators, a purely police non-lethal weapon.
The Americans got something sane when they put a 150-kilowatt laser on the landing ship Portland. It was with this laser that they were able to shoot down a target drone by prolonged heating of the target. But they could.
In general, it is worth taking a close look at movements in the United States. They strike, if not with a laser beam, then with their quantity and perspective.
The Americans continue to work on a program to create ground-based and airborne laser weapons. The sea seems to have been mastered at the initial stage.
The list of programs is very long. It contains everything - airborne anti-missile lasers, infantry hand-held laser weapons, and laser cannons for ground armored vehicles.
In the air, Boeing and Lockheed have worked fruitfully with the YAL-1 launcher. "Boeing-747" with this laser successfully shot down missiles, and the laser power reached the cherished megawatt level. However, the program was stopped precisely because the use of this heavy and awkward monster in real combat somehow did not look optimistic, and besides, the missiles turned out to be more effective.
But Northrop and Raytheon today continue to work on the M-SHORAD, Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense program. This is an armored vehicle with a laser designed to protect ground units from UAVs and other small aircraft.
The Americans want to reach a power of hundreds of kilowatts, which will provide a quick target burning within a second or even less in terms of exposure time. The installation has already demonstrated the successful defeat of the UAV, and the US military has announced its intention to purchase 144 M-SHORAD installations for itself, with the first 36 installations to be received in 2020.
But M-SHORAD has a competitor. This is HEL TVD, or High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator from Dinetics and Lockheed Martin. Also an interesting development, a laser plus a helicopter turbine with a generator as a power source. Cheap and cheerful and also knocks down the targets.
Feel the howl of the saw? So I feel. I hear.
And then there are Israel and Turkey.
Israel has the aforementioned "Iron Beam", but the Turks were the first to successfully use the laser in combat conditions.
Nobody especially looked after Turkish developments, but in vain. The Turks have also grabbed onto lasers and are making progress. It all started with individual models of the SAVTAG company together with the TUBITAK institute, a state structure in the field of high-tech developments. Like our Skolkovo, it only works.
As a result, all the developments were transferred again to the state concern Aselsan, the main manufacturer of the Turkish military-industrial complex. And the result was the Cobra armored vehicle with a laser cannon. The Turks demonstrated how she shoots down UAV targets at a distance of about 500 meters.
Meanwhile, Aselsan has built a machine with a 50-kilowatt laser based on a standard army armored car.
In the summer of 2019, such a machine with the calculation ended up in Libya, where the troops of the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar conducted a successful offensive against the forces of the Government of National Accord. On August 4, 2019, a Wing Loong II UAV belonging to Haftar's army was shot down by a laser cannon.
This is how the first combat use of lasers in history took place.
In general, we can say that lasers have the prospect of moving from the category of expensive toys to the category of auxiliary weapons. But after many years and billions of dollars. Not earlier and not less. To date, there are no sufficiently large and powerful energy sources in the world capable of pumping the laser and imparting the required amount of energy to the pulse.
Therefore, today it is very strange to read unscientific fictions like this:
“For example, fog, smoke, any dispersed mixture in the air significantly weaken the power of the beam. Up to its complete obstruction. However, in science it is known that this beam can be modulated in some magical way so that it overcomes such obstacles and turns into an active plasma at a certain distance in the right place.
Finally, food. Judging, however, by the not very compact, but still mobility of "Peresvet", in Russia these issues were somehow resolved. It is possible that a certain role here can be played by a compact nuclear installation like the one that Vladimir Putin spoke about when he presented a cruise missile with a nuclear power plant. Why not? If it works on one type of weapon, you can put it on another. Or perhaps a compact nuclear battery is being used. But we will definitely not find out about this soon.
Today, one thing is clear: lasers are already covering the skies of Russia from enemy attacks."
(Source:
Yes, of course, if "magically", then undoubtedly, lasers cover the skies of Russia. Powered by a magic compact nuclear battery or from the nuclear power plant of a magic missile.
In general, sheer magic and triumph of new physical principles. To the screeching of a saw.
What is left for us?
Seriously, nothing. Again, combat lasers are just starting their development today. And it is very difficult to say how long this road will be. Once upon a time, huge multi-turret breakthrough tanks such as our T-35 and other projects (French and German) seemed to be the height of perfection and power. And literally in a decade nothing remained of them.
And there have been more than just such projects in the military history of mankind. Hundreds, thousands of inventions ended in nothing. And that's okay.
It is possible that combat lasers will become real combat devices. And perhaps the quotes in the word "combat" will remain deserved. All this will be shown by time and technical progress.
So far, it is possible to shoot down a UAV cheaper and more reliably than a multi-container complex of a combat laser. Perhaps the word "bye" is appropriate here, but …
In fact, today, despite the laudatory odes and statements that "lasers protect our sky", the laser remains a promising development. A very expensive promising development. Requiring time and money. Money - especially.
And it is quite possible that the problems of energy sources and physical dependence on weather factors will finally either bury the very idea of a combat laser, or again push lasers into space, where it is not so dusty.
Which, I am sure, will satisfy those who want to make money on it.
