ninjanki escreveu:Sim, mas as armas PEM vão além dos lasers. Um laser esquenta o alvo, até queima-lo. Dessa forma, dependendo da superficie, o tempo de exposição tem de ser maior ou menor para realizar seu objetivo. A solução, é claro, é usar uma potência cada vez maior, para poder reduzir o tempo necessário para danificar o alvo. Outro problema é que o laser, para ser efetivo, tem de ser concentrado. Sendo concentrado, ao invés de arrasar com o alvo, faz um furinho de nada. Se o furo não atingir nenhuma parte essencial, como por exemplo o combustível, explosivo, ou unidade de controle, o dano é pouco relevante. Uma PEM trabalha normalmente com feixes mais largos, que cobrem o alvo, e ao invés de super-aquece-lo, ou varre-lo do mapa, usa potência e comprimento de ondas adequados para penetrar as blindagens externas sem precisar danifica-las, e "frita" os super-delicados circuitos integrados que controlam o alvo. Contra esse tipo de arma, é preciso uma blindagem especial, projetada para algo próximo da frequência de onda utilizada.
Talvez eu esteja exagerando, mas um caça como o Rafale, que dizemos "nuclearizado", é projetado para proteger seus sistemas eletrônicos de pulsos eletromagnéticos do gênero, causados por explosões nucleares. Imagino que isso também o torne bem mais resistente à armas PEM. Mas absolutamente qualquer parte do avião exposta, não protegida pela dita blindagem, pode ser danificada, incluindo um radar, oque não derruba o avião, mas o inviabiliza para o combate imediato.(os mísseis carregados, por exemplo, estão expostos e podem ser danificados por esse tipo de arma)
Allan
Ninjanki, as pesquisas estão apontando para laser digamos... mais... potentes. Quase de ficção científica.
Vejam, por exemplo, o THEL.
Laser gun zaps missile
A laser gun, described as "the world's first high-energy laser weapon system designed for operational use", has shot down a missile in a test in the US desert.
An infrared detector capture the explosion
The $250m system was built by TRW Corporation for the US and Israeli governments and was tried out at the White Sands missile range, New Mexico, on Tuesday
During the test of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), it tracked a Katyusha rocket with its radar and then destroyed it with its high-powered laser beam.
The system will be delivered to Israel by the autumn and could be used to intercept Katyusha rockets, which have in the past been fired by guerrillas from the Islamic group Hezbollah, based in southern Lebanon.
Israeli pull-out
The need for protection in northern Israel gained added urgency this month when Israeli troops withdrew from the so-called "security zone" they controlled in southern Lebanon.
The laser gun uses radar to track targets
The THEL system stems in part from a commitment President Clinton made in April 1996 to then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to aid Israel in developing a security system against rockets.
"This compelling demonstration of THEL's defensive capabilities proves that directed energy weapon systems have the potential to play a significant role in defending US national security interests world-wide," said Lieutenant General John Costello.
Israeli Major General Isaac Ben-Israel said the weapon was "the crucial first step to help protect the communities along our northern border against the kind of devastating rocket attacks we've suffered recently."
Big beam
A laser is an intense, beam of light, carefully corralled so that the beam does not diverge and weaken. In THEL, the energy is supplied by a controlled chemical reaction.
The laser is a potentially potent weapon as the beam travels literally at the speed of light and can cross great distances with minimal loss of intensity. Such a beam could knock out targets at distances ranging from tens of kilometres to, in theory, thousands of kilometres.
Lasers were behind the space-based missile defence shield idea, labelled "Star Wars", first suggested by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
Israel has not said how and when it might deploy THEL and the US Defense Department has said it has no immediate plan to use it with US forces.
The Pentagon is working on a variety of other laser weapon technologies that could be used to shoot down ballistic missiles in flight, although deployment of such weapons is at least a decade away.
The Katyusha missiles are Soviet-designed
A laser gun blasted a pair of rockets out of the sky Friday, in a first-ever dual shoot-down of incoming missiles
WASHINGTON -- In a scene right out of science fiction, a battlefield laser gun blasted a pair of rockets out of the sky Friday, in a first-ever dual shoot-down of incoming missiles.
The joint test by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Israel Ministry of Defense used a chemical laser under development by TRW for the double hit.
The test simulated a missile attack by a pair of Russian-made Katyusha rockets, with the laser gun tracking them post-launch and firing a beam at the rockets in rapid succession. The rockets are similar to a type of battlefield short-range rocket that could be fired against civilian cities or encampments of troops in a theater of battle. In such an attack, scores of missiles would descend on their targets, and laser weapons would need to blast the rockets or detonate their warheads before they came too close to U.S. or allied forces or civilians.
In the Friday test, and a similar demonstration on August 28, both missiles were destroyed when the laser beam struck the warhead atop each missile resulting in an explosion.
The actual range of the rockets to the laser gun -- called by TRW a "Beam Director" -- is classified, according to Brooks McKinney, TRW spokesperson at the company's Redondo Beach, California offices. So is the altitude of the two rockets at the point they were destroyed by the laser beam.
Beam director in final preparation for firing
"These are low trajectories, just kilometers off the deck," McKinney said.
The theater laser system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range, limited rocket attacks fired at civilians and troops in the field. It is not capable of intercepting missiles high in the atmosphere as is the case with the National Missile Defense System under debate by the Clinton administration and Congress.
TRW's laser is a virtually invisible, infrared beam generated from deuterium and fluoride. In the test simulating the missile attack, the two rockets are fired aloft in rapid succession. The laser-system tracking radars detect the missile's oncoming flight and fires two separate laser beams at each target, one after the other. The beams strike the missile's warhead and, in effect, detonate its explosive well before the missile reaches the ground.
"Killing one rocket was significant, but being able to show that we can consistently kill two or more targets per engagement is in a class by itself," said Lt. General John Costello, commanding general U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command. The tests were conducted at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The U.S. and Israeli governments have been developing laser battlefield weapons -- known as "Directed Energy Weapons" in engineering terminology -- since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The requirements for the lasers are driven by the need of the Israeli government to protect civilians living in towns along its northern border from future rocket and missile attacks.
Foto maiorzinha
![8-]](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif "Cool"){kind=icon}
