India prepares laser-based missiles

[Nahraf]

India prepares laser-based missiles - UPI.com

India prepares laser-based missiles
Published: Aug. 31, 2010 at 9:13 AM
NEW DELHI, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Bent on becoming a regional superpower, India is pursuing ways to develop laser-guided anti-ballistic missiles.

Dubbed direct energy weapons and developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization, the new weapons are intended to kill incoming, hostile ballistic missiles "by bombarding them with subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves," the Defense News Web site reported.

In a planning document written earlier this month, India's Defense Ministry said it would place what it called its highest priorities on direct energy weapons for the next 15 years. Trials of the weapons are expected within the coming years should scientists stay on schedule with the development program.

Indian scientists say they have already begun testing. The defense dazzler was reported to be one of the first weapons put to test, engaging enemy aircraft and helicopters within a range of 6 miles.

This system alone, Defense News reported, will be inducted into the country's defense apparatus by 2012.

"Lasers are weapons of the future. We can, for instance, use laser beams to shoot down an enemy missile in its boost or terminal phase," The Times of India recently quoted Anil Kumar Maini, who heads the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization's Laser Science and Technology Center.

The direct energy weapons are capable of producing 25-kilowatt pulses that can destroy intruding missiles. They are said to be considered by the Indian navy for deployment on submarines and destroyers. They may also be mounted on combat aircraft and transport planes.

India's designs come amid efforts to establish a defense shield capable of knocking down hostile ballistic missiles.

Should India succeed, it will join Israel, Russia and the United States in both developing and owning such defense technology.

Although manufactured domestically, the system's tracking and fire control radars have been developed with Israel and France.

Bent on bolstering its military might, India announced plans recently to spend up to $30 billion on its military by 2012.

In recent months, for example, it inducted a long-range nuclear-tipped missile into its armed forces, unveiling, also, a defense spending budget spiked by 24 percent since last year.

The moves have Pakistan fretting, with leading officials billing India's drive a "massive militarization."

The Times of India reported that laser-based weapons would comprise one component of a wider India missile defense network now under development. The newspaper noted, however, that the country's Defense Research and Development Organization is known to make claims regarding technology that it cannot ultimately produce.

 

[Kinetic]

Desi reporting!

Lots of mistakes. DEW true but it is not laser guided but using laser itself as weapon to destroy incoming aircraft. We will see anti aircraft/chopper/tactical missile version with in next 2 years. A larger version for destroying long range missiles like IRBM or ICBM is still years away.

 

[gowthamraj]

What the idiotic article

 

[GK2010]

India prepares [B]laser-based missiles[/B]

pls change topic to "india prepares laser weapons for incoming missiles"

anyway

 

[Devianz]

Crappy reporting at its best.

 

[DesiGuy]

no comment!

 

[below_freezing]

bad title.

any laser based weapon can easily be defeated by spinning the missile so no one spot ever gets heated enough to melt.

 

[Tejas-MkII]

i think they very much completed the development of 25-KW laser dazzler , that's why there are so much talk about these things.

we might see testing of these things in 1-2 year...

 

[siegecrossbow]

i think they very much completed the development of 25-KW laser dazzler , that's why there are so much talk about these things.

we might see testing of these things in 1-2 year...

A dazzler's wattage is a lot lower than 25kw. With 25 KW you could easily melt off a person's skin!

However I do think that DEW has a lot of potential (the main problems right now being compact power source/blooming and atmospheric distortion). Besides intercepting missiles/planes and damaging satellites I think they could reduce collateral damage in anti-ground operations. Good Luck to the DDRO!

 

[GK2010]

bad title.

any laser based weapon can easily be defeated by spinning the missile so no one spot ever gets heated enough to melt.

does the missle spin? i dont know this.

 

[siegecrossbow]

does the missle spin? i dont know this.

Spinning the missile is a proposed counter measure against a laser weapon. While I don't know how well the spinning works I know that the mirror defence is overrated. The mirror surface must be kept immaculate (kinda hard in combat situations) and the smallest defect in the mirror may give the laser a "breakthrough" point.

 

[forcetrip]

Spinning the missile is a proposed counter measure against a laser weapon. While I don't know how well the spinning works I know that the mirror defence is overrated. The mirror surface must be kept immaculate (kinda hard in combat situations) and the smallest defect in the mirror may give the laser a "breakthrough" point.

I say the best deterrent against laser weapons will be the introduction of "shinny" missiles.

 

[siegecrossbow]

I say the best deterrent against laser weapons will be the introduction of "shinny" missiles.

As I've stated previously although a mirrored surface could increase the beam exposure time it can't ward off a beam forever (unless it is perfectly fabricated) due to the presence of defects/dirt on the mirror surface.

Also there is the issue of high intensity lasers (I don't know whether it is achievable today yet). If the intensity of the laser is sufficiently high it will proceed to strip electrons off the surface regardless of how "shiny" it is. This is why the U.S., Russia, and China are investing a great deal of $$$$ studying laser weapons right now.

 

[sab]

I think DRDO guys are working with linear electron acceletor. In a recent book published by ministry of Information says BARC has given KALI 200 to DRDO. It cleard my doubt that they have plan to weaponize it. But there is no further information since 04. Other electron accelators like Kali 5000 etc are in operation in BARC.

 

[Devianz]

Mirrors though can act as a counter measure cannot be used as an effective counter for a powerful focused laser beam. No mirror is a 100% reflector. Some part of the incident beam will always get absorbed and heat up the surface of the mirror and hence reducing its effectiveness as time passes.
Although mirrors are always used to reflect laser beam in a high powered laser system to reflect beam path, it usually used to reflect unfocused beams. The final focusing is usually done at the very end of its exciting point from the device.

Reflective surfaces also present an obstacle, bouncing the beam off a potential target, but this is not as big an impediment as one would tend to think. Mirrors are usually frequency-specific; one that reflects visible light will not necessarily reflect UV or infrared wavelengths, making them vulnerable to weapons that can easily change their beam wavelength. Also, mirror quality is an issue. Most mirrored surfaces are not 100% smooth, meaning that some of the energy from the laser will be absorbed by it, probably melting or marring the reflective surface. Thus unless the mirror unusually tough and is smooth down to its component molecules, it probably won’t be able to reflect a laser hit in the same spot more than once or twice.

Keeping the mirrored surface scratch proof can also lead to a very tough job.

There are some other methods to effectively counter a laser beam.

ABLATIVE ARMOR

Another defense would be ablative armor, usually made of an array of tightly-clustered gel or foam packs. When a laser hits one of these packs, the heat from the laser instantly boils the gel or foam away, the explosive reaction almost instantly absorbing, dispersing, and redirecting most of the laser energy away from the target. This is much like modern day explosive reactive armor, but carried out on a much smaller scale.

Like reflective surfaces, ablative armor would not be effective if hit more than once in the same spot.

SUPERCONDUCTIVE ENERGY DISPERSIVE ARMOR

If room-temperature superconductors are ever developed, an even more effective defense against lasers becomes available. Fabric interwoven with superconductor wire would instantly absorb the incoming electromagnetic energy of the laser beam and disperse it evenly over its entire surface area. The energy re-radiates almost instantly into the surrounding air as heat. The laser would have to pump enough energy to completely destroy the entire armor all at once before it could penetrate through to its true target. If the superconductor mesh in the armor were cooled via refrigeration unit or a heat sink, even more energy would be required to overcome the armor.

Effectiveness of these methods would untimely depend on the how powerful the incident laser beam is.
Also the cost of applying these counter measures may be too high and you may decide to try your luck by firing multiple missiles instead of using counter measures.