The US Navy plans to deploy the latest laser weapons on the landing ship “Ponce” this summer. This is the first solid laser weapon deployed by the US Navy. This signifies that the long-term development of the US military’s laser weapons is about to be put into actual combat, moving from behind the scenes to the front stage.
Unlike the scenes in science fiction movies, laser pointer beams produced by laser weapons can only see the damage to the target after being hit by the naked eye, but they cannot see the actual beam. But it is this “invisible killer” that has the potential to change the combat thinking of future wars and have a decisive impact on the victory or defeat of wars.
Controlling the “light sword” for thousands of years of dreams, with softness and rigidity, originated from Chinese Taoism. For more than 2000 years, mankind has dreamed of turning weak light into a sword to kill the enemy. In 214 BC, the Roman fleet besieged the ancient city of Syrah in ancient Greece. When life and death, Archimedes used the lens to focus on the principle of concentrating energy and burned the ancient Roman fleet sailboat. Although the authenticity of “optical warfare” is quite doubtful, it is, after all, a portrayal of mankind’s dream of controlling light energy, and has become a persistent pursuit of scientists for optical weapons.
In the early 20th century, Einstein successfully explained the “wave-particle duality” of light, and proposed the theory of “stimulated radiation” with the in-depth study of optics. After the unremitting efforts of scientists from Russia, Russia and the United States, in 1960, the first ruby green laser pointer was born in the laboratory of the American physicist Theodore Mayman. The appearance of this product makes it possible to use laser beams to attack targets in a certain direction.
Because of its high energy, monochromaticity, coherence, and good directivity, lasers were quickly used by weapon manufacturers to be used in various weapon systems, and proved their worth in various wars. In the 1970s, lasers were used as guidance devices for guided bombs. The US “Gem Road” series of laser-guided bombs showed great power in the Vietnam War. According to statistics, from 1972 to 1973, the hit rate of the “Gem Road” bombs dropped by the US military in Hanoi and Haiphong reached 48%. The hit rate of the bombs used by the US military was only 5%, and the laser weapon brought subversion to the US military. Sexual battlefield changes.