From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!G:asa
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Hot Light or Hot Air?
Article-I.D.: populi.561
Posted: Sat Apr 30 16:18:56 1983
Received: Tue May  3 05:57:35 1983

     The best article I've read to date on the defensive use of lasers
in space is the one by Kosta Tsipis that appeared in SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN (December 1981, vol. 245, no. 6, pp. 51-57).  The following
are quotations from that article.


     "The potential of lasers as weapons has been assessed in a
     series of workshops organized by the Program in Science and
     Technology for International Security of the physics
     department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
     Participants in the workshops have included some of my
     colleagues and me from M.I.T. and investigators from other
     universities, from industry and from the national weapons
     laboratories.  We have concluded that lasers have little or
     no chance of succeeding as practical cost-effective
     defensive weapons." (p. 52)

     "On balance, then, laser weapons operating in the atmosphere
     offer no clear advantage over existing weapons for close-
     range defense.  In addition they can be impeded by weather,
     they cannot operate effectively beyond a range of a few
     kilometers, they are easier to neutralize by countermeasures
     than ordinary projectiles or supersonic missiles and they
     require a much better tracking system.  Under these
     circumstances it is difficult to see how the development and
     deployment of such fragile, complex and expensive weapons
     would improve the military capability of a nation." (p. 57)


     I would recommend this article to anyone interested in the
administration's recent defense proposals.  I'd also be interested in
learning if there are any reasons why the conclusions reached by the
author cannot be accepted as the last word on the subject.  (Reply to
this newsgroup, please.)

John Hevelin
ucbvax!g:asa