KALI (Kilo Ampere Linear Injector)

[Mujraparty]

Single Shot Pulsed Gigawatt Electron Accelerators
Indigenous technology for Electron Accelerator technology development was carried out meticulously and has built four accelerators starting with a modest power level of 0.4 GW, APPD has successfully developed accelerators with a power level of 40 GW. KALI series of accelerators includes KALI 80, KALI 200, KALI 1000, and KALI 5000.



KALI � 5000: This system is designed to produce electron pulses of about 100 ns with an energy of about 1 MeV, current 40 kA and a power of 40 GW.

This Relativistic Electron Beams (REB) thus generated will be used for the generation of High Power Microwaves (HPM) & Flash X Rays (FXR). Commissioning trials for KALI 5000 system have begun.

A view of a 1 MeV, 50 -100 ns, 40 GW pulsed accelerator (KALI 5000) is depicted below
Attachment 1300 KALI-5000 Accelerator


This Accelerator will deliver electron beam at the rate of 10 - 100 Hz with an energy and current of 200 keV, 5kA respectively. The pulse length will be around 50 ns. In this device, double exponential electrical pulses of 20 kV/20ms produced by a solid state driver are amplified, compressed and shaped into rectangular pulses of 75 kV / 50 ns by successive stages of magnetic compression switches. These pulses are fed into a two-stage induction accelerator cavities, for accelerating the electron beams to about 1 GW of power (peak). This accelerator will also be used for generating HPM and FXR and dynamic imaging. Most of its subsystems are in the advanced stage of fabrication.

Pulse Power Systems:

A technology developed over the last 25 years or so.
Attachment 1302 80 joules Pulse power system gifted to IIT Chennai: A MARX bank based, 300 kV, 2kA, 100 ns pulse power source was gifted to High Voltage Electrical Engineering deptt. of IIT Chennai.A view of this source is shown in Figure. It is being used as an educational tool for imparting training and teaching to the B.Tech, M. Tech and Ph.D. students about designing the MARX generator and their characterizations.


The KALI (Kilo Ampere Linear Injector) is a linear electron accelerator being developed in India, by the Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
Overview:
The KALI is not a laser weapon as commonly believed. It emits powerful pulses of electrons (Relativistic Electron Beams- REB). Other components in the machine down the line convert the electron energy into EM Radiation, which can be adjusted to x-ray (as Flash X-Rays) or microwave (High Power Microwave) frequencies.

This has fueled hopes that the KALI could, one day be used in a High-Power Microwave gun, which could destroy incoming missiles and aircraft through soft-kill (destroying the electronic circuitry on the missile). However, weaponising such a system has many obstacles to overcome.

History:
The KALI project was first mooted in 1985 by the then Director of the BARC, Dr. R. Chidambaram. Work on the Project began in 1989, being developed by the Accelerators & Pulse Power Division of the BARC. (Dr. Chidambaram was also the Scientific advisor the Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission). DRDO is also involved with this project. It was initially developed for industrial applications, although defence applications became clearer later[1].

The first accelerators had a power of ~0.4GW, which increased as later versions were developed. These were the KALI 80, KALI 200, KALI 1000, KALI 5000 and KALI 10000.

The KALI-5000 was commissioned for use in late 2004.[2]


Design:
The KALI series (KALI 80, KALI 200, KALI 1000, KALI 5000 and KALI 10000) of accelerators are described as "Single Shot Pulsed Gigawatt Electron Accelerators"[3]. They are single shot devices, using water filled capacitors to build the charge energy. The discharge is in the range of 1GW. Initially starting with 0.4GW power, present accelerators are able to reach 40GW. Pulse time is about 60 ns.


The Microwave radiations emitted by the KALI-5000 are in the 3-5 GHz Range

The KALI-5000 is a pulsed accelerator of 1 MeV electron energy, 50-100 ns pulse time, 40kA Current and 40 GW Power level. The system is quite bulky as well, with the KALI-5000 weighing 10 tons, and the KALI-10000, weighing 26 tons. They are also very power hungry, and require a cooling tank of 12,000 liters of oil. Recharging time is also too long to make it a viable weapon in its present form.


Applications:
The KALI has been put to various uses by the DRDO. The DRDO was involved in configuring the KALI for their use.

The X-rays emitted are being used in Ballistics research as an illuminator for ultrahigh speed photography by the Defence Ballistics Research Institute (DBRL) in Chandigarh. The Microwave emissions are used for EM Research.

The microwave-producing version of Kali has also been used by the DRDO scientists for testing the vulnerability of the electronic systems of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which was then under development.

It has also helped in designing electrostatic shields to "harden" the LCA and missiles from microwave attack by the enemy as well as protecting satellites against deadly Electromagnetic Impulses (EMI) generated by nuclear weapons and other cosmic disturbances, which "fry" and destroy electronic circuits. Electronic components currently used in missiles can withstand fields of approx. 300 V/cm, while the fields in case of EMI attack reach thousands of V/cm.

As a Weapon:
The KALI's potential for a military role as a beam weapon has made it, in the eyes of the people, "India's Star Wars". However, weaponisation of the KALI will take some time. The system is still under development, and efforts are being made to make it more compact, as well as improve its recharge time, which, at the present, makes it only a single use system.

There are also issues of creating a complete system, which would require development of many more components. There have also been reports of placing the weaponized KALI in an Il-76 aircraft as an airborne defence system. There is also speculation of using the KALI as an Anti-satellite weapon and as a space-based weapon system, although it is unlikely that they would be implemented, given India's stance on those issues.

If weaponized, it is quite likely that KALI would be integrated into India's fledgling Ballistic Missile Defense program.

According to scientists, ''soft killing" by high power microwaves has advantages over the so called laser weapon which destroys by drilling holes through metal.

The Kali system was developed for industrial applications and that the defence use was a recent spinoff.


Development of the Kali machine was mooted in 1985 by Dr Chidambaram, then director of BARC, but work earnestly began in 1989.

The machine essentially generated pulses of highly energetic electrons. Other components in the machine down the line converted the electrons into flash X-rays (for ultra high-speed photography) or microwaves. The electron beam itself can be used for welding.

The Defence Balistics Research Institute in Chandigarh is already using an X-ray version of Kali to study speed of projectiles.

Another defense institute in Bangalore is using a microwave-producing version of Kali which the scientists use for testing the vulnerability of the electronic systems going into the LCA Tejas under development and designing electrostatic shields to protect them from microwave attack by the enemy.


According to BARC scientists, the Kali machine has for the first time provided India a way to ''harden" the electronic systems used in satellites and missiles against the deadly electromagnetic impulses (EMI) generated by nuclear weapons.

The EMI wrecks havoc by creating intense electric field of several thousand volts per centimeter. The electronic components currently used in missiles can withstand fields of Just 300 volts per centimeter.

While the Kali systems built so far are single shot pulse power systems,the Kali-5000 is a rapid fire device, and hence its derrivative will be used as beam weapon.

According to BARC-published reports, the machine will shoot several thousand bursts of microwaves, each burst lasting for just 60 billionths of a second and packed with a power of about four gigawatts.

The high power microwave pulses travel in a straight line and do not dissipate their energy if the frequency falls between three and ten gigahertz.

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[Gessler]

Already discussed many times before.