At 12:10 PM 10/11/2002 -0700, "Major Variola (ret)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Theres no huge explosion associated with its employment, there are no >pieces and >parts left behind that someone can analyze to say, this came from the >United States, >explains an unnamed Lockheed Martin official quoted in Aviation Week and >Space >Technology in July. The damage is localized, and it is hard to tell >where it came from >and when it happened. It is all pretty mysterious.
The only energy sources I can think of that is portable enough to go in a jet are a generator running of the main/aux jet engine or a chemical pumping. Unless the DoD has found a practical new chemical reaction, other than the Fluorine/Deuterium they used for decades on various shipboard project such as MIRACL, the plane would be easily identified and targeted by the fluorescing the chemical plume with LIDAR. Assuming a laser efficiency of 5% an electric source would have to provide over 2 MW of continuous power (from Star Wars test results, I assume a pulsed laser is inadequate for causing damage in combat situations) to supply a 100KW beam. The most efficient generators I'm aware are capable of producing about 2-4 HP/lb. 2 MW equates to about 2700 HP or about 650 - 1300 lbs. Assuming the laser isn't too terribly heavy or aerodynamically cumbersome the entire package could be carried aboard a fighter. steve "War is just a racket ... something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small group knows what its about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses." --- Major General Smedley Butler, 1933
