In terms of actualizing laser weapons, the US Air Force is now far behind the Army and Navy. As early as August 2014, the U.S. Navy first installed the first laser weapon on the USS Ponce amphibious ship. In mid-July this year, the Ponce conducted a laser pointer weapon test at sea in the Persian Gulf and shot down a drone.
As early as March of this year, there were media reports that Lockheed Martin has officially started delivering this 60-kilowatt green laser pointer to the US Army. It is also responsible for supplying multi-kilowatt fiber lasers to the Army’s largest vehicle, the heavy, highly mobile tactical truck. Once completed, this truck will become a high-energy laser mobile test truck. It should be pointed out that the laser weapons that the US Army and the Navy are advancing to actual combat are mainly fiber laser weapons. This is similar to the technology used by the Air Force in the previous report, and it is relatively mature.
The so-called fiber laser is a laser using optical fiber as the laser gain medium. It is a kind of solid-state laser. It has relatively good Laser Engraver beam quality, ultra-high conversion efficiency, completely maintenance-free, high stability, small size, good heat dissipation, Easy to shape, can be distributed and installed, and has strong environmental adaptability.
Theoretical analysis believes that the output power of a fiber laser is limited, and a single fiber generally cannot exceed 10 kilowatts, otherwise the power is too large, and a large number of photons entering the fiber will cause it to heat up quickly, and it is difficult to dissipate the fiber in time. The Lockheed Martin multi-kilowatt fiber laser uses the “spectral beam combination” technology to combine the beams output by several fiber lasers to form a high-energy laser beam, thereby developing a high-power laser weapon of 60 kilowatts. system.
Loading laser weapons on aircraft is systems engineering. It should be said that multi-kilowatt fiber lasers are currently one of the more mature laser weapon technologies. So, is there a similar technology in China now?
The reporter found that a previous report from this newspaper pointed out that a scientific research team of the former General Equipment Department used a number of independent lasers to form a composite resonant cavity using the unique “self-collimation, mutual injection, and adaptive” characteristics of the pyramid “High-power, high-energy, high-brightness, multi-function” laser output, and has the significant characteristics of small size, high efficiency, high reliability, low cost, etc., subverted the traditional technical route. At the same time, they developed a prototype of a six-way solid-state laser coherent synthesis principle in the laboratory and built a set of tactical laser weapon demonstration platforms. The appraisal concluded that “the project has reached the international leading level”. In 2015, the team, together with several academicians, jointly suggested that China should give priority to the development of key technologies for a certain type of laser weapon, and received high attention from relevant national departments.
Some media pointed out that this laser is similar to the “Chinese version” of the US multi-fiber laser, but its technology is more advanced, indicating that China has taken the lead in the world in the development of laser weapons.
In this regard, airborne laser weapons must have corresponding technical support and meet many conditions. For example, the power must reach weapon-level standards, that is, 100 kW or more, the power of single-mode fiber lasers must be very high, and advanced beam synthesis technology must be available. Advanced aiming and tracking systems, self-stabilizing platforms, and more. This is a highly integrated system integration process, with a very high technical content, and it takes time to enter the engineering phase. However, it is certain that with the continuous development of technology, it will be a very necessary and inevitable thing to install laser weapons on aircraft in the future.