Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Jim W Lai)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Laser Beam Weapons (LONG)
Message-ID: <11068@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 3 Nov 89 04:19:53 GMT
References: <10842@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Jim W Lai)

In article <10842@cbnews.ATT.COM> siegman@sierra.Stanford.EDU
(Anthony E. Siegman) writes:
>My personal opinion is that chemical lasers at the multi-megawatt
>level can surely be built (probably have been built) in the
>laboratory.  _Diffraction-limited_ lasers at the same power level
>might just barely be accomplished, for short periods of time, in the
>laboratory, with painstaking adjustment and extraordinary expense.
>But to think of making hundreds or thousands of such lasers; launching
>them into space; having them not just work but maintain their
>performance once they reach orbit; having them stay in operable
>condition, available for use at short notice, for years or decades;
>aiming and pointing them remotely; and, not so obviously, being able
>to have any confidence at all that they will actually work when and if
>needed -- these are absurd fantasies, not worth taking seriously.

As of 1987 (I know my info is a bit out of date), the MIRACL chemical
laser (which burns hydrogen fluoride and deuterium fluoride) achieved
power in excess of 1 MW.  According to the APS report on SDI, the
needed improvement in output from the HF-DF laser was a factor of
twenty to be useful for SDI.  However, the laser which achieved the
best performance cannot be scaled to significantly higher powers.
Scaling up a technology may sometimes be a difficult task, if not
impossible.
-- 

"Then he ruins everything by talking."
   Bruce Wayne, _Batman: The Dark Knight Returns_