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For a vision of war , it was almost refined . The smoke and stink and deafening crack of munitions would be put back by unseeable beam of light of focussed light . Modified 747 jets , equip with optical maser weapons , would shoot ballistic projectile while they were still hundreds of miles from strike our soil . " Directed - energy " shank would intercept incoming rocket at the upper of twinkle , inflame up the explosives inside and causing them to collapse apart in midair .
And this was n’t some relic of Reagan - era Star Wars visionaries . These were forward-looking plans , initiated barely a tenner ago , that would be recognize not in some far - off future , but soon . Out in the New Mexico desert at the White Sands Missile Range , the U.S. Army ’s Tactical High Energy Laser dash down dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortars . In 2004 , Air Force contractor set about mental testing - firing the chemically powered radio beam weapon for a retrofitted 747 , the Airborne Laser .
After decades of expensive, well-publicized failures, laser weapons may finally be on the horizon.
Then reality set in , and these late efforts to wield battlefield laser suddenly began looking as doomed as Star Wars . Generating the megawatt of laser power necessitate to detonate a projectile need 100 of gallon of toxic chemicals — ethylene , nitrogen trifluoride . The weapons grow bulky . Worse , after a few shaft , the laser would have to be resupplied with a fresh raft of reactant . The logistics of haul those toxin either through the air or across a field of honor made general shudder . And questions lingered about how in effect the beams would penetrate rubble and rain . Last year , the Army set off its Tactical High Energy Laser projection , and some suppose the wildly overbudget balance beam - firing 747 may be next to go .
But do n’t weigh optical maser weapons out yet . The electron beam - throttle potential of weapon that fire with preciseness over terrible distances is far too militarily appealing , peculiarly at a meter when American soldiers are fighting guerilla foes who meld quickly into the background signal . " If I could reach into a crowd and take out one or two aim without a puff of dust or a crack of a rifle — if I could fire for a foresighted time , without ever receive to recharge , " say Marine Corps Major General Bradley Lott , " that ’s something the United States Marine Corps would be very , very concerned in pursuing . "
But if chemic lasers ca n’t turn out it , what will make beam war a realness ? The reply is twofold . First , the Pentagon is easy realizing that if it wants results , it has to get down its expectations . pip down mortars first , for example , then missile . More of import , however , is the reemergence of two engineering science of the Star Wars past — solid - state and free - electron optical maser — in the energized , hope - filled laboratory of two former workfellow who think their dreams of laser triumph had died yr ago .
jump to light speed
optical maser all work in pretty much the same way : Excite sealed kinds of atoms , and light particles — photons — radiate out . Reflect that light back into the excited molecule , and more photons look . But unlike with a electric-light bulb , which shine in every guidance , this second batch of photons travels only in one centering and in lockstep with the first . And instead of shining in every part of the spectrum , optical maser light source is all the same wavelength , which depends on the " gain medium"—the type of atoms — you utilise to generate the beam of light . Shine enough of the focused luminosity , and things start to burn .
The first optical maser experiments in the 1960 ’s used ruby crystals as the gain metier . But solid - state lasers like these originally could n’t create more than a few hundred watts of mightiness . That ’s all right for eye surgery . knock down a missile — as the war machine first dream of doing — takes million of watts of mightiness , which is why researchers turned their effort toward the ultimately fail chemically powered optical maser .
There is another form of laser , however , one that requires no bulky tubs of toxic chemicals , no crystals — no amplification medium whatsoever to render its beam . It ’s called a innocent - electron optical maser ( FEL ) , and it apply a turbocharged flow of negatron to kick - depart its chemical reaction . This pattern of laser dominated the Star Wars national projectile - vindication programme ; it was the almost mythological beast that scientists George Neil and Bob Yamamoto toiled on together for defense contractor TRW .
It was hamstring by high-pitched power expections . But both Neil , the task ’s chief scientist , and Yamamoto , a project engineer , were true believers . They thought that with enough research , a barren - electron optical maser might really be able to contain a rogue projectile . And the breakthroughs required in nuclear physics , oculus and superconductivity would have far - reaching benefit , even if an intercontinental ballistic missile never got zapped . But after 10 years and half a billion dollars of investment , the free - electron laser in TRW ’s lab peak out at a meager 11 watts — a tenth of what a incandescent lamp generates .
After several more years of executives continuing to forebode 10 , 20 megawatts of big businessman , the Pentagon finally pulled the plug in 1989 , and Star Wars sound down in a flameout of fabled proportions . Neil peculiarly resent the way the reckless projection had doomed the programme and turned his directed - energy ideas into a laughingstock . At scientific conferences for years afterward , Neil would recommend for reviving liberal - electron research . " hoi polloi consider we were insane and the applied science was unworkable , " he say . " And on the bare grounds , they were right . "
Bob Yamamoto , meanwhile , continue aside from military labor for 15 geezerhood after the Star Wars debacle . He went to go for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , TRW ’s partner in the free - electron optical maser , building magnets for high - energy physical science experiments . The research laboratory was close to Berkeley , California , where he had grown up and gone to college , so the shift gave him the hazard to keep run and rebuilding import cars — Toyotas and Datsuns — with his old buddies . In the service department and at the research laboratory , Yamamoto developed a report for making things that could be run hard . Because of this and his previous optical maser experience , he was tap in 2003 to run Livermore ’s $ 50 - million Pentagon - funded self-colored - state laser task . The technology , once deem so unfeasible , was being resurrected with more metrical progress expectations . Yamamoto felt as comfortable with firm - state technology as he did with gratuitous - negatron lasers , and it proved an intriguing reentry into the study . " Directed - energy weapons , they ’ve been foretell for more than 30 twelvemonth , " he says . " I want to be the first on the pulley-block to say , ' We took care of it . ' "
Under the GUN
The ammunition in Yamamoto ’s new self-colored - country optical maser is a set of four - inch square pellucid slabs tinct with the slightest hint of purpleness . They ’re exactly what you ’d expect to discover power the cannon on plug-in the Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon .
A magazine of these see - through slab is n’t on the dot infinite , though ; for every 10 minute they fuel , they need at least a minute to cool down off . But the slab — ceramics impregnate with the constituent neodymium , the atom that , when excite , produce the photons that eventually become the laser ray of light — can never be drained of their strength . And they ’re a passel less hassle than bulky chemical substance tubs . They ’re a big reason why Yamamoto ’s machine force into a single 30 - groundwork - foresighted lab . It ’s not hard to imagine the whole thing packed into a humble hand truck , knocking mortar out of the gentle wind . " I ’ve been thinking about deployment for a long time , " Yamamoto say .
A strong - res publica laser like his could now make it to a war zone in part because the bar for energy weapons has been let down . smash an intercontinental ballistic missile from 100 statute mile away requires megawatts of sparkle . Solid - body politic lasers might never get that powerful . But heating up a mortar from a mile away until the explosive inside detonate — that takes only 100 kW .
Yamamoto is getting near . He show up off dozens of blocks of carbon blade and aluminum , each two inches tall and an column inch thick . On all of them are burn sucker and gob . One stop , marked " 6 - 6 - 05 , " is almost altogether warp by a pair of half - dollar - size slump . A forget me drug of formerly molten metal sticks out from the bottom . " Can you consider that ? " Yamamoto enquire , with a booming strain and a big , boyish grin . He looks much younger than his 50 geezerhood . " It ’s like shine a flashlight , and poppycock is melting ! It ’s ridiculous ! " The Livermore optical maser , push forward by larger increase - culture medium slab and increase pulsate speeds , hit 45 kilowatts of power in March 2005 . That ’s more than triple what the laser could do three eld before .
But there ’s a nervous tension at the science lab the day I arrive to visit . Each of the slabs is surrounded by an array of 2,880 light - emitting diodes , like the ones in a clock radio . When they shine , they excite the atoms in the transluscent ceramic composite and begin the optical maser Ernst Boris Chain response . The problem is that the more the rectifying valve glow , the more that temperature disparities degrade the quality of the beam of light . The infrared ray — inconspicuous to the raw oculus — set out to lose some of its quality . Which is defective , because the Pentagon wants to see a nice , tight beam , as well as a herculean one . And the Defense Department ’s squad of tester is due here next Tuesday . The sojourn will mostly see whether the Livermore team will get the cash to make its next laser : a 100 - kW , artillery - grade machine .
So Yamamoto ’s team is making last - minute adjustments to the " adaptative optics"—mirrors fitted with more than 200 actuators that bend them to correct for distortions in the shaft . Yamamoto is courteously excusatory . " I ’m sorry , but we ’re under the heavy weapon , " he says as our meeting draws to a last .
wiggle through
George Neil is n’t in such a rush when I fulfill him a few daytime later . The fragile , 58 - year - old " death race " moon curser — he recently finished a 78 - mi ultramarathon through the Canadian Rockies — has been pushing for a free - electron optical maser for more than a quartern of a hundred . It will be another few years before he ’s got one as strong as Yamamoto ’s solid - nation automobile . So he has some time to show me around his lab at the Department of Energy ’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News , Virginia .
He afford a couplet of magnetically sealed doors . Inside is a 240 - substructure - long jumble of copper piping , prophylactic hosepipe and steel tube of a 12 different sizes . Almost all of it is designed to do one thing : get massively sinewy heart rate of electrons , moving at 99.999 percent the fastness of light . The electron rush through precision - timed micro - wave fields , foregather metier and speed along the elbow room . Then the electron beam is sent through a " wiggler , " a series of 29 magnets that stoop the electron flow up and down . In the process , the electrons emit photon — and the laser chain reaction begins . This is Neil ’s addition metier , his answer to Yamamoto ’s slab and the chemical substance laser ’s toxic gases , and it is by increasing the great power and timbre of this electron beam that Neil boost his technology .
The FEL ’s " tunability " is what engender the military interested in the first place . Most lasers lose military posture as they move through — and get absorbed by — the atmosphere . A little pelting only seduce thing worse . But an FEL could use whatever wavelength flow through the air the best . And there ’s no emptying the " infinite cartridge clip . " No marvel Los Alamos National Laboratory associate director Doug Beason calls it laser ' Holy Grail . But can anyone attract it off ?
After Star Wars , ultramarathoner Neil beseech his sentence and paced himself , waiting for the technology to get up . For five years , he worked here at Jefferson lab on a gargantuan particle accelerator . The lab ’s film director prognosticate that he could work up the FEL afterward . Finally , in 1995 , when it do clock time to put the machine together , Neil and his team designed a new FEL that would produce a single kilowatt of light — not the superstrength lasers promised back in the ' LXXX . In 1999 they broke the record power levels of the Star Wars – modeling FEL by 100 - fold . In 2003 the new FEL pip 10 kilowatts , another phonograph recording . " I always conceive the technology would get there , " Neil says with a slaked grin , " if we took doable steps with fair goals . "
And now Neil has the military ’s care again . The Defense Department is investing $ 14 million a year in the machine . There ’s talk of eventually fit the Navy ’s next generation of destroyers with gratis - negatron laser . Today the ships do n’t have the preciseness weaponry to bar rocket and small - gravy boat attacks , like the kind Al Qaeda used against the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 . A optical maser might be able to handle the job . And only a spare - negatron laser could be tuned to cut through the briny ocean air .
In December , Neil gets respectable news . The Navy has send to the im - proved FEL in a big manner : $ 180 million for an eight - yr , multi - team campaign . " There ’s many a challenge ahead , " he write , " but at least we are pop . "
Yet Neil ’s feelings are a little shrubby bittersweet . The results have come in for the Pentagon ’s solid - state laser competition , too — and his old friend and colleague Bob Yamamoto drop off out . The money to progress a artillery - grade substantial - province optical maser in the research laboratory is plump instead to a team at Northrop Grumman .
Northrop ’s design was n’t all that dissimilar from Yamamoto ’s , but instead of the four big see - through slabs at the marrow of Yamamoto ’s machine , Northrop relies on several smaller crystals . Less energy is concentrate on individual crystals , so there are few imperfectness in the ray . " I ’m astonied how much tycoon we ’re getting out of a piece of glassful the sizing of a stick of gum , " sound out Northrop computer programme manager Jeff Sollee , a 30 - year place - energy veteran , most recently with the defense declarer ’s last big chemical - optical maser program , the Tactical High Energy Laser . The Pentagon has given Sollee 33 months to bring his machine to battlefield forcefulness .
Yamamoto , meanwhile , continues to quietly tweak his laser , despite the Pentagon ’s determination against him . He ’s find out that , in this business , anything can pass . " For now , we ’re keeping an extremely low profile , " he says . " But we ’re not done . "
Noah Shachtman editsdefensetech.org , a military - technology blog .
