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Carrier Countdown
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| 18 December 2002 |
By Andrew Koch, JDW Bureau Chief, Washington, DC
High-powered lasers that knock cruise missiles and aircraft out of the sky, precision-guided projectiles that emerge from the exoatmosphere at a speed of M5.0, striking their targets with such force that explosive warheads are not required. These are some of the advanced technologies senior US Navy (USN) officials believe will equip future warships.
These capabilities, listed in the navy's new 'Sea Power 21' roadmap, are within technical reach this decade, Rear Adm Michael Mathis, commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, told Jane's Defence Weekly.
Perhaps the most revolutionary system is the electromagnetic (EM) railgun, which could deliver a strike similar to that of a meteorite, according to one navy official under Adm Mathis.
Unlike conventional guns - which use propellant to create expanding gases that force a projectile down a barrel - EM guns use electrical current to create an electromagnetic force (a Lorenz force) to propel the projectile between two conducting rails, the official explained. The projectiles on current USN designs are launched at M7.0-8.0 into the exoatmosphere, allowing them to "go in excess of 200nm" in about six minutes.
The navy hopes to conduct a proof-of-concept demonstration of the EM gun over the next four or five years, Adm Mathis said. The service could have an operational system ready in 15 years, funding permitting, he added. That would meet the schedule for future upgraded versions of the DD(X) such as Flight 2.
Yet the ability to propel lethal pieces of steel deep inland is not the only future directed-energy capability the navy is seeking. It is also developing high-energy lasers for ship self-defence against cruise missiles, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), manned aircraft and even small seacraft, Adm Mathis said (JDW 1 May).
The navy estimates it will eventually need a megawatt laser and plans to work in stages toward that capability. "I could see the first generation of lasers on ships as an infra-red countermeasure to blind [cruise] missiles," Adm Mathis said, with more capable lasers and missions added later. Funding permitting, the navy hopes to demonstrate a full-power Free Electron Laser (FEL) at sea in eight to 10 years. To date, the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia, has scaled an FEL up to 2KW and the navy wants to increase that to 10KW soon before moving to 100KW in two to three years.
The navy prefers to develop a FEL because it is more efficient in power transference and it can operate in maritime environments, explained Cdr Roger McGinnis, the service's programme manager for directed energy.
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