Recently, at the "Wuhan China Optical Valley" Laser Technology and Industrial Development Innovation Forum, the person in charge said that my country's first fully independently developed 20,000-watt fiber laser has officially entered the installation stage, and this technological achievement directly breaks the foreign technology monopoly. This 20,000-watt fiber laser was developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Fourth Institute and may be released and put into use in the first half of 2018. So, is this laser technology related to laser weapons and equipment? When will laser weapons be on the battlefield on a large scale?
A sudden rise
The US military is very enthusiastic about tactical laser weapons
Although lasers have been widely valued by military forces from all over the world since their birth, they especially want to apply them to strategic anti-missile areas. However, due to various difficulties such as atmospheric, optical attenuation, heat dissipation, target guidance, the development of strategic laser weapons is very slow. However, since the 21st century, the US military has once again begun to pay attention to the research and development of high-power solid-state lasers, using them to perform tactical tasks such as short-range air defense, anti-missile, and warship self-defense, and calling it a mysterious weapon for the US military to lead the opponent again.
In terms of high-power tactical solid-state lasers, fiber laser weapons are becoming the main source of tactical laser weapons due to their obvious advantages in efficiency, laser beam quality, system volume, weight, robustness and cooling. Recently, the prototypes of various laser weapons developed by the US military are all fiber laser weapons. For example, the "Holy Sword" project of the US Defense Prevention Research Project (DARPA), the Navy's carrier-based tactical laser weapon system project and laser weapon system project, the Army's "Regional Defense Rebound System" (ADAM), and the "Zeus-Hummer Laser Ammunition Destroyment System" all use fiber lasers.
Among them, the "Holy Sword" is an airborne laser weapon project, targeting a reflective electric or infrared-guided surface-to-air missile with a combat altitude of 15 kilometers. The US Navy's Mk38 carrier-based laser cannon combat targets are a large number of intensive small ships, surface ships, aerial vehicles, etc. In 2011, the laser cannon conducted firing tests on air and surface targets.
The US Army's "regional defense rebound system" mainly defends ground forces against threats from short-range aerial targets (rockets, drones). In 2012 and 2013 trials, the system successfully destroyed drones and small-caliber rockets. The "Zeus-Hummer Laser Ammunition Destroyment System" is installed on the famous "Hummer" vehicle and has the ability to anti-mine and deal with roadside bombs.
In addition to the above content, the US military also has some fiber optic tactical laser projects. Now the US military is very enthusiastic about the development of tactical laser weapons and is in the stage of "showing a large-scale net". The Pentagon launched its third "offset strategy" in 2014, with the core of which is the development of disruptive advanced technological weapons and continue to gain an absolute advantage in military competition.
Robert Walker, executive vice secretary of the US Department of Defense, believes that the core of the third "offset strategy" is to establish advantages in precisely guided weapons, destroying the opponent while successfully avoiding enemy precision guided attacks. Many American military experts also believe that tactical laser weapons are obviously a project that should be developed in the third "offset strategy".
Technical analysis
Can a 20,000-watt fiber laser be used in military use?
So, can the 20,000-watt (20KW) fiber laser developed by China be used in the research and development of tactical laser weapons in China? The author believes that there is still a distance.
First, one of the key components of fiber laser weapons is the single-mode fiber laser. Its representative is the 10KW single-mode fiber laser produced. In addition to being widely used in civil use, it is also widely purchased by the US military as a basic module for tactical laser weapons.
As mentioned above, most of the tactical laser weapons being developed and tested in the United States use this product from IPG. After the company first developed a 10KW single-mode fiber laser in 2009, it did not hide its strong interest in the weapons market.
The 20KW fiber laser developed by Ruike Fiber Laser in Wuhan, China should still be a multimode fiber laser. From a technical perspective, high-power fiber lasers are divided into single-mode and multi-mode. Synthesizing several lower-power single-mode fiber lasers into a kilowatt-level output should be much easier than a kilowatt-level single-mode output. The largest multimode fiber laser developed by the company was 4KW.
If the 20KW fiber laser produced in China is a single-mode laser, then it will not break the foreign monopoly and will become the world's number one laser artifact. Because it is difficult for the world's leading IPG companies to increase single-mode fiber lasers to 20KW, the technology industry generally believes that the upper limit of single-mode fiber lasers is 10KW.
So in the field of tactical laser weapons, can high-power multimode fiber lasers be replaced with difficult single-mode fiber lasers? The answer is no. Because the power of multimode lasers is large, but the beam quality is poor, they cannot be used in laser weapons, but can only be used in industrial fields. Therefore, the main purpose of China's 20,000-watt fiber laser is to break foreign monopoly, reduce import costs, and enable laser manufacturing technology to be more widely used in my country's high-end manufacturing field.
As early as the 2014 Zhuhai Air Show, a Chinese company had already launched the "Low-Altitude Guard 1" laser interception system, but after studying the system data, it was found that the output power of the system was 10KW. Compared with the same type of weapons in the United States, it can only intercept small and slow civilian drones and cannot be used in the military's tactical laser field.
Confidence multiplied
Breakthroughs are required for various technologies
However, we are still quite confident in China's development of 10KW single-mode fiber lasers similar to IPG companies. Taking my country as an example, under the leadership of this company, China has initially realized the industrial chain of 100% domestic fiber lasers. In 2011, an American professor who founded the main technology of IPG 10KW single-mode fiber laser, who owned 24 international patents and the landmark "double-clad fiber laser" invention patent, came to inspect and was shocked and excited about the domestic and industrialized fiber lasers that have independent property rights in China, and expressed his willingness to cooperate with Ruike to promote its accelerated development.
Once a Chinese company can develop a 10KW single-mode fiber laser, tactical laser weapons can be developed almost immediately through incoherent synthesis methods. The so-called "incoherent synthesis method" is to tie multiple fiber lasers together in parallel and guide the lasers to output light beams in the same direction, so that they can be superimposed together in space, thereby increasing the total power. Several laser weapons under development in the US military have been successfully developed through this method.
But can only have a high-power single-mode fiber laser, which can break through all tactical laser weapons? Obviously not. Because this kind of laser weapon made of "bundled" cannot improve the brightness of the synthetic beam, and the beam quality is poor, the range is limited, and the volume is huge. This fiber laser weapon can only be loaded on large platforms such as ships. To be loaded on fighter jets and ground vehicles, it is necessary to produce lasers with higher brightness and better beam quality, and the energy utilization rate is higher, which requires technologies such as beam coherence synthesis and optical phased arrays.
For example, the US military airborne laser weapon "Holy Sword" project we mentioned earlier uses a 21-unit optical phased array, which synthesizes 21 fiber laser beams into a single beam, with a power efficiency of more than 35%, and has atmospheric compensation function, which can avoid the impact of atmospheric turbulence disturbance on the laser beam. In the experiment, this low-power array accurately hits targets at a distance of 7 kilometers, which is more than 4 kilometers higher than existing laser weapons.
In addition, the United States has launched the "Lightning" project, with its combat targets being reflective or infrared-guided air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles. The project uses a fiber laser array, and the research and development targets a laser weapon system that is 10 times lighter than existing laser weapons, and is equipped on the aircraft platform with extremely small volume and mass for aircraft self-defense and medium-range ballistic missile defense.
Therefore, only if China has made breakthroughs in high-power single-mode fiber lasers, beam coherent synthesis and optical phased array technology, can we see China's tactical laser weapons appear on the PLA's warships, tanks and even combat aircraft like the J-20 in the near future.
Watch it all in a row
Soviet laser weapons
Attacking US satellites
Laser weapons have been regarded as strategic weapons for anti-satellites since their birth. During the Cold War, there were reports that the Soviet Union used laser weapons to attack American satellites, and later the United States tested the effect of laser weapons anti-satellites by itself.
On October 18, 1975, the Control Center reported that the infrared detector of the 647 early warning satellite over the Indian Ocean was disturbed by strong infrared flashes from the western Soviet Union and could not work properly. On November 17 and 18, 1975, two data relay satellites of the US Air Force stopped working due to infrared interference from the Soviet Union. It is found that the infrared attitude controller failed.
On May 22, 1980, Thomas Ross, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said at a press conference: "The CIA and other intelligence agencies have found that the Soviet Union is developing a laser weapon system that can destroy satellites." He continued, "However, this research is also underway in the United States. The Soviet Union may be a little ahead in the power it reaches."
In addition, on October 17, 1997, the United States used ground chemical laser launch devices to launch laser beams to military meteorological satellites that the United States wanted to scrap. This infrared chemical laser, known as the first experiment, used a high-power laser to illuminate the Air Force MSTI-3 research satellite in low-Earth orbit in two attempts. The laser beam hits the target point - the medium-range infrared camera. After being illuminated, the infrared camera did not generate images, indicating that the satellite sensor was attacked.
Immediately afterwards, the US Army conducted a second firing satellite test with a low-power chemical laser, and illuminated the infrared camera on the satellite three times. The success of this test is an important milestone for the US military's laser anti-satellite weapons. However, there are almost no public reports on the subsequent development of lasers.
Aircraft equipped with laser cannons
To intercept tactical missiles
Compared with the United States' laser weapons, the YAL-1 airborne laser system is even more famous. This oxygen-iodine chemical laser weapon system developed by Boeing and installed in a modified Boeing 747-400F with a megawatt-level power supply is used to intercept tactical ballistic missiles.
This laser cannon mounted on the aircraft cannot penetrate or crush the target, but instead weakens the missile shell by heating, making it unbearable under the pressure of high-speed flight and collapses on its own. This laser weapon is not a fiber laser weapon, but uses chemical fuels similar to rockets to generate laser energy. Each YAL-1 airborne laser system can carry and launch 20 rounds of fuel, and can launch 40 rounds when launching low-energy against small missiles. Each attack in the project also requires escort from fighter jets and electronic jammers. When in use, the aircraft must fly in circles in 8 fonts and stay in the air as much as possible, close to where enemy missiles may rise. Aircraft can be refueled in the air to extend the air stagnation time as much as possible.
The most obvious feature of this type of aircraft's appearance is the large laser turret at the head of the aircraft, and the inside of the aircraft is equipped with a carbon dioxide laser, which is divided into six modules, each module as big as an SUV car and weighs 3,000 kilograms. When firing, the energy emitted in 5 seconds is equivalent to the power consumption of an American family for an hour.
In the end, the aircraft was cancelled by the US military in 2011 due to a reduction in budget and flew to the aircraft cemetery at Davis-Monsen Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona on February 14, 2012.
The translation expert behind lasers
The English LASER of laser is originally the abbreviation of "light amplification emitted by radiation stimulated", which means the process of light amplification, rather than the light that comes out after amplification.
In October 1964, the editorial department of the magazine "Light Excitation Intelligence" sponsored by Changchun Institute of Optometry and Machinery of the Chinese Academy of Sciences wrote a letter to Qian Xuesen, asking him to give LASER a Chinese name, and Qian Xuesen suggested that the Chinese name was "Laser". In December of the same year, the third Academic Conference on Optical Quantum Amplifiers was held, chaired by Yan Jici. After the discussion, he believed that the translation was both correct and loud, and formally adopted Qian Xuesen's suggestion and officially translated LASER into "laser". Muyi
