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Subject: ABL and Spinning Missile..
reefdiver    4/19/2007 5:01:21 PM
In a Thursday April 19, 2007 article over at Wired - Defense, Noah Shachtman posts a Vice article critical of the ABL: http://blog.wired.com/defense/ blog.wired.com/defense/ ...missiles also spin as they ascend, and the laser may not be able to heat one spot up enough to explode the missile... To that, the laser-makers say, "We'll get back to you." --------------- My observation is that tests with THEL were against spinning artillery, mortars, and kaytusha rockets. They were all destroyed. So do you think a spinning ICBM/SRBM will defeat ABL?
 
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Herald1234    No.   4/19/2007 5:32:09 PM
It comes down to stressing the rocket motor casing and popping it like a balloon..

Herald
 
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VelocityVector       4/19/2007 5:58:17 PM

And with liquid fueled vehicles once the thin skin has been penetrated any hole will admit high velocity atmosphere into a boost phase shell that's a rockin' and a rollin' with great enthusiasm . . .

v^2

 
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reefdiver       4/20/2007 11:32:15 AM

And with liquid fueled vehicles once the thin skin has been
penetrated any hole will admit high velocity atmosphere into a boost phase shell
that's a rockin' and a rollin' with great enthusiasm . . .


v^2

  I get that - but does anyone think the missile's slow spins in boost phase will provide a defense?
 Also - what about solid state fuel missiles - will they be vulnerable to the ABL?
 


 
 
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Herald1234       4/20/2007 11:44:14 AM




And with liquid fueled vehicles once the thin skin has been
penetrated any hole will admit high velocity atmosphere into a boost phase shell
that's a rockin' and a rollin' with great enthusiasm . . .




v^2



  I get that - but does anyone think the missile's slow spins in boost phase will provide a defense?

 Also - what about solid state fuel missiles - will they be vulnerable to the ABL?

 



 

The solid rocket motor is a continuously burning firecracker. It is under enormous internal pressure. Any uneven thermal loading on its rather thick outer casing will cause it to split apart along a seam like an overinflated water melon.

Herald

 
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doggtag    something else to consider, ABL vs THEL   4/20/2007 12:14:47 PM
The Airborne Laser will be generating magnitudes greater energy than THEL.
If THEL had no major issues breaking thru the skin of a fairly small missile, rocket, or artillery projectile, why would the considerably-more-powerful YAL-1A have difficulty hitting considerably larger missiles and bringing them down?
 
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Herald1234       4/20/2007 12:35:38 PM

The Airborne Laser will be generating magnitudes greater energy than THEL.

If THEL had no major issues breaking thru the skin of a fairly small missile, rocket, or artillery projectile, why would the considerably-more-powerful YAL-1A have difficulty hitting considerably larger missiles and bringing them down?

Inverse square law, thermal blooming in the beam path, and beam jitter. I would prefer a "lightning gun"; i.e. a particle beam, but that has even more formidable issues (How do you establish a charge ground path for the lightning bolt in an atmosphere?)

There is an effective laser range limit dictated by the physical properties of air. It also limits the total upper limit of work you can expect to deliver within that range. By no means does THEL, or the ABL reach it yet, but it is there.

If THEL can crack mortar shells it should kill most missiles with no trouble at all. When you get to the really thick casings we might have problems but that is on the HUGE solid rocket boosters  Then you start needing the megajoule  weapons. I did not say megawatt, I said megajoule. There is a subtle difference.

Herald
 

Herald
 
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mabie       5/18/2007 4:50:38 AM
I recall reading an article years back when SDI was first proposed and the same argument was made re how effective a laser would be if used against a spinning missile to which a scientist replied.." as effective as a spinning ballerina against a machine gun."
 
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hybrid       5/18/2007 5:48:16 AM
Actually what it comes down to is a multitude of factors, namely the thickness of the missiles body, ablative shielding if present, the energy output of the laser, and duration of laser on the target. Depending on the laser duration on target a missile could theoretically spin fast enough to throw off a lasers damage. Mind you this is assuming something like 10 kilojoule laser roughly dumping its energy every second (effectively 10 kilojoules per second) on a target X size. The key to killing missiles and even planes (potentially even tanks in the future) is dumping the energy VERY VERY fast in pulses. Do it fast enough and not even mirrored surfaces help. Dump your same 10 kilojoules of energy on a target over .05 microseconds and you got yourself an equivalent roughly to a 20 gigawatt laser shining on said surface for 1 second (since lasers are measured in watts anyway this is somewhat disingenious).
 
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