Space Based Lasers Replaced With Smoke And Mirrors

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The US Military Opts for Space Mirrors Instead of Space Lasers

-February 26, 2006 3:23 PM
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=990

With the ABL project so far behind schedule, it looks like the US military has other plans for long range laser systems

DefenseTech has an interesting article about the status of air and space borne lasers in the US military. The primary laser system for the US, the Airborne Laser project, is a modified 747 "YAL-1A" aircraft designed around a chemical laser that can intercept ballistic missiles, airplanes or just about anything else in the atmosphere. Unfortunately the effective range of about 300 kilometers has project planners worried, and the project status has recently been downgraded to just an experimental technology demonstrator -- the US military was planning on building 7 of the aircraft by 2008.

Instead, DefenseTech claims the US military will opt for a second air-borne laser strategy: a network of mirrors in space acting as relays for ground based lasers. This relay system, dubbed Tactical Relay Mirror System (TRMS), has been in planning stages since last year but always backburnered in favor of the ABL project. A space array of mirrors increases the range of a laser system drastically as the military can build ground based drastically more powerful than the one found on the YAL-1A, and that the line of site for a satellite is much less constricting than any other platform.

The US already has plans to put close range lasers on AC-130 gunships by the end of next year. Trials for a TRMS are already apparently underway. Considering that the US military has 8-10 classified launches per year, each capable of inserting multiple satellites into orbit, it would not be surprising to me if such a system was already partially in place.

full article: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=990

[sui generis]

1. nice - so I guess this magically works through clouds

space junk, chaff, etc. Let me see, I'm guessing you have to be able to position that mirror in space, so the latencies in the system are 1. target acquisition (visual or some other feedback mechanism operating at less than the speed of light) 2. remote control (two way signal latency plus building the time cost of building a visual feed, and 3. Ongoing callibration - if you move a mirror in space real fast, you have an inertia issue.

Come on guys, even a 12 year old could figure out that it can't work except against static targets, and then a plain ol' missile would be bazoodles cheaper. Why are we spending money on it?