Military engineers concentrate on creating new weapons for the battlefield.

Ray guns that zap bad guys with a lethal beam of light have long been mainstays of science fiction, from Buck Rogers to Star Wars. Now, after more than 40 years of trying, engineers are close to making high-energy battlefield lasers a reality.

Recently, defense contractor Northrop Grumman demonstrated a prototype of an electric laser gun that shoots out a 105-kilowatt beam of light. A laser beam of 100 kilowatts or more is considered weapons-grade. Northrop’s laser has a light intensity that’s about the same as the surface of the sun.

It’s strong enough to knock out the rockets, mortars, and artillery shells bedeviling U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Northrop says the weapon can easily be ratcheted up to much higher levels of force. That means future versions could be mounted in jet fighters to shoot down enemy aircraft in a split second.

Other types of future laser weapons would be adjustable, able to emit low-power stun beams as well as high-power killer ones. The military is eager to field so-called directed-energy weapons because they’re ultra-precise and much faster than bullets.
Developing a workable laser weapon like Northrop’s required “a complete host
of engineering disciplines,” explains Nasser Peyghambarian, a professor of materials
science and engineering at the University of Arizona. Optical, mechanical, electrical, and materials engineers all contributed. And although Northrop’s engineers are civilians, they work closely with their counterparts in the military.

Why do some engineers gravitate toward weapons program research? Peyghambarian says it’s often a combination of wanting to help defend the country while working on “gee-whiz,” cutting-edge technology. Many Northrop engineers admit to being influenced by the futuristic weapons portrayed in science fiction, Bob Bishop, a Northrop spokesman, says, and “are doing everything they can to make gunpowder a 20th-century technology.”

While that goal is now within reach, the deployment of laser weapons is still years away. That means young, aspiring engineers of today could still be part of the effort to deliver what Bishop calls “the promise of defense at the speed of light.”

Watch this cool video on lasers here:

Filed under: Electrical, Explore Engineering, Materials, Mechanical

Tags: Electrical, Materials, Mechanical, Technology