I would see some kind of high velocity gun with long range and radar beam ridding technology. Gun can be improved a lot and you don't need a lot to disable another aircraft. New radar are powerfull, the addition of laser and IRST could help these type of guidance to make them quite lethal with small projectiles that can be carried in large number. Laser and IRST line of sight guidance could even make these kind of weapon way hardier to deter.
PLA 6th generation fighter thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
They are getting there: Guardian (DE M-SHORAD) is to be delivered this year.
MW variant is also apparently in progress.
Weight is still a big issue.
The DE M-SHORAD is 9 tonnes heavier than a basic Stryker.
And if the laser CIWS does work out for vehicles and aircraft, strategically it benefits China more than the USA.
The existing inventory of UAVs, aircraft and missiles becomes obsolete, and it is the US which has a much large stockpile of existing weapons accumulated over the past 30 years.
So both China and the US would be starting from scratch in a similar position.
Yep, but realistically we're talking about (at the earliest) 2030s aircraft here.
There is quite a while for these things to come together.
I think for lasers to be effective in high powered applications they need to radically increase laser performance. i.e. the conversion of electricity to laser light must be way more efficient. Unfortunately the technology to make such lasers does not exist yet. As it is now a lot of power is wasted as heat.
In the meantime lasers might be used in active protection systems against missiles and the like.
In the meantime lasers might be used in active protection systems against missiles and the like.
Ground based or aircraft borne?
High instantaneous power is achievable with high energy fast pulsed lasers (microsecond or less) with high repetition rates (10s kHz or higher)
Fast pulsed lasers directly vaporize material rather than heat and melt/burn like continuous lasers.
broadsword
Brigadier
Is pulse laser still a lab thing though? There does not seem to be any Chinese company making it for industrial use.
Check Han laser . However the world leader is trumpf and ipg photonics.