U.S USING LASER TECHNOLOGYIt may sound like sci-fi, but lasers are definitely the future of war. As are drones. So what could be better than to see them go up against each other in a blaze of explosive glory? Looks like in the rock-paper-scissors game of modern combat, laser beats drone.This is the future of warfare. And it's so, so cool.
The US military has been toying with lasers for a while now. The Air Force is considering them as weapons on future fighters and bombers, and Lockheed Martin has been working to make them a source of fuel for drones. The Navy? They just like to shoot stuff with 'em.
US Military Will Install
Laser Turrets
on Bombers and Fighter Jets
It was science fiction before, but now it's really happening, Young Skywalker: The US Navy and Air Force are going to install liquid-cooled, solid-state lasers in combat airplanes. Laser turrets designed to defend the planes by shooting incoming threats like surface-to-air missiles and rockets. Seriously. The above is an official concept image by DARPA, but integration is happening this year, with real firing tests coming in 2014.
The USAF has been playing with lasers in planes for a while. They worked to create the the highly successful—but ultimately shelved—Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed. Remember Reagan's Star Wars? This was one of the few technologies that we got to work outside those 3D animations that scared the Soviets so much.
But that was a huge megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser designed to take down intercontinental ballistic missiles and other surface-to-surface weapons. That's why it required a 747 to ferry it around.
These are solid-state lasers that will be light enough to be installed in bombers and fighter jets, and will be fired to defend themselves against anti-air defenses like surface-to-air missiles and rockets.
The first one is called Hellads, a laser planned to be installed in tactical aircraft (the one pictured above is a B-1 bomber). Using a series of unit cells, the laser will be capable of delivering 150kW—meeting the their 5 kilogram to one kilowatt design goal. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has already showed that they can meet the spec with a single and two-unit system that was capable of producing 34kW. This kind of energy is enough to take down the threats faced by these planes.
General Atomics and DARPA say that fabrication was completed in 2012. In 2013 they will integrate it with the different systems required and, by 2014, perform real-world tests against real threats fired at the planes.
And the Hellads is not the only self-defense laser the military is playing with. Lockheed Martin and DARPA are now entering a test phase for another self-defense laser, the Aero-Adaptive/Aero-Optic Beam Control. This will be like the an automatic laser turret capable of taking down missile threats from any direction. According to DARPA, they weren't previously able to make this system work because of the turbulence caused by the engine:
"High-energy laser systems are currently limited to a forward field of regard due to turbulent density fluctuations in the aft sector of the turret that severely degrade the laser beam fluency on target."
The new laser will be able to take on rear threats by using flow control and adaptive optics, which will eliminate the distortion. Like the concept image indicates, they plan to install this laser in high speed fighter jets.
Watch a Navy Laser Gun Blast a Drone Right Out of the Sky
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION - INDIA
AURA UCAV
DRDO is also developing the AURA (Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft) which is an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle for the Indian Air Force. The design work on the UCAV is carried out by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADE). The AURA UCAV will be a tactical stealth aircraft built largely with composites, and capable of delivering laser-guided strike weapons. It would be a stealthy flying-wing concept aircraft with internal weapons and a turbofan engine.
India will soon embark on developing an indigenous unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) for surveillance, detection and destroying specific targets, a top defence official said on Wednesday. "We will soon embark on designing and developing an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, which will not only do surveillance, but will also help detect the target and destroy the identified object," V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, told reporters here.
An UCAV or 'combat drone' differs from ordinary UAVs as it is designed to deliver weapons. The pilotless vehicle can carry greater payloads and have wide range and manoeuvrability in the absence of a cockpit and associated equipment.The ambitious project will be taken up by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bangalore with private industry participation. "The controls of a combat drone will be rested with multiple command control centres. The centres can be geographically at different locations. Even if one centre becomes defunct, the drone can be controlled and guided by other centres," Saraswat, who recently took over as director general of the DRDO, said on the margins of a conference."The UCAV will work in a multi-layer manner for which ADE is developing the required technology, including sensors," Saraswat said after inaugurating the fifth national conference on 'NextGen IT for Indian Defence'.
At a Glance
Stealth UCAV
Capable of releasing missiles, bombs and PGM at enemy targets
Internal Weapons Bay
Turbofan Engine
Ceiling: 30,000-ft
Weight: 15 ton
Development
The UCAV is currently referred to as IUSAP FOR Indian Unmanned Strike Aircraft Program.AURA will be developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) at Bangalore in collaboration with Defence Avionics Research Establishment (Bangalore), Defence Electronics Application Lab (Dehradun) and Gas Turbine Research Establishment (Bangalore).DRDO is confident of developing the UCAVs mainly on its own, with "some foreign consultancy or collaboration" in fields like stealth as well as autonomous short-run take-off and landing, according to Dr. Prahlada
Powerplant
In August 2011 a DRDO official told the press that the UCAV maybe powered by the indigenous 75kN thrust Kaveri engine
Air Launched Brahmos & Hypersonic Brahmos II
Work on the air-launched version of the missile is in the final stages and BrahMos scientists are now waiting for the Su-30MKI aircraft from India to act as a platform for test launch of the missile.
The air-launched version, will be lighter and smaller than the land-based version of the missile so that it can be fitted to the aircraft. One of the two speed boosters in the missile has been removed for the air version of the weapon system as after being launched from an aircraft moving at a speed of more than 1.5 mach, the missile will automatically gain its momentum and maintain its speed of 2.8 mach, the sources said.
After being released from the aircraft, the missile will have a free fall of about 150 metres before getting activated and flying to its target. The range and speed of the missile will remain the same as that of its land and ship-launched versions, they said.
For the integration of the aircraft with the missile, two of IAF Su-30 MKI planes will be used. These aircraft would be the part of the 40 additional Su-30s, for which orders were placed in 2006.
Soon after induction into the IAF, the two aircraft will be sent back to Russia where their airframe will be strengthened to carry the missile in their underbelly, the source said adding, they are expected to be inducted into the operational service of both India and Russia by 2012.
FGFA - Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft
The current prototype is Sukhoi's T-50. The PAK FA when fully developed is intended to replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker in the Russian inventory and serve as the basis of the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA project being developed with India. A fifth generation jet fighter, it is designed to directly compete with Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. The T-50 performed its first flight January 29, 2010. Its second flight was on February 6 and its third on February 12.
Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan has projected a market for 1000 aircraft over the next four decades, which will be produced in a joint venture with India, two hundred each for Russia and India and six hundred for other countries.
The Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) is a fifth-generation fighter being developed by Russia and India. It is a derivative project from the PAK FA (T-50 is the prototype) being developed for the Indian Air Force (FGFA is the official designation for the Indian version).
According to HAL chairman A.K. Baweja shortly after the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee meeting on 18 September 2008, the Russian aircraft will be a single-seater, the Indian FGFA will be a twin seater, analogous to the Su-30MKI which is a twin seat variant of the baseline Su-30. Two separate prototypes will be developed, one by Russia (designated the T-50), and a separate one by India
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