03/22/2018
Defense One and
Ars Technica reported that the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons laboratory (JNLWD) is close to creating a new type of laser-plasma weapon, the sound of which will be one of the main striking factors.
Pentagon specialists are convinced that the new “wunder waffe" created at the junction of optics and acoustics will be able to replace several types of non-lethal weapons of the US Army. The development is based on the effects of plasma induced by lasers.
Operating principle
David Lowe, head of the technology division of JNLWD, said that the weapon consists of two modules: a femtosecond laser that generates a plasma and a nanolaser that allows it to be controlled.
A femtosecond laser generates short pulses of focused light for 10–15 seconds, which makes it possible to detach electrons from nuclei and create a plasma. The plasma ball that appeared after this is exposed to a nanolaser that tunes to a narrow wave range. This ensures that the plasma field can be manipulated in order to obtain sound and bright flashes at a great distance from the radiator.
How this happens is demonstrated in the video.
Remote "bible bush" for the US Army
The authors of the article in Defense One argue that some of the noise that scientists have managed to obtain resemble human speech. Journalists have already called the installation “a burning bush”, because it, like the Old Testament bush, will be able to broadcast something like: “Surrender, resistance is useless,” and at the same time to blind and spoil the uniforms with high temperature. David Lowe reports that in the near future (2-3 years) his installation will reproduce human speech:
“We are close to getting him to talk to us. I need three or four kilohertz, ”says the scientist.
It is on this effect that researchers have placed many hopes, given that, depending on the power of the installation, it can “attack” the enemy from a distance of one to tens of kilometers. Responding to questions about the range of “shooting,” David Lowe said the following:
“Range is a function of optics. The larger the mirror, the farther the distance, the Law said. A five-inch mirror creates an effect of about one kilometer; 8-inch mirror, about five kilometers ... This is the first non-lethal weapon that can work at a distance of tens of kilometers. "
According to the physicist, long distances are largely achieved due to the Kerr effect.
142 dB from the “biblical bush”
I was not too impressed with the Laser-induced plasma effect, which the installation allows to obtain in laboratory conditions ... Until I looked at the results of control measurements.
Demonstration of laboratory test installationAlready, the prototype device creates a plasma ball 10 m from the installation, which is able to emit waves with a sound pressure of 142 dB. It has a relatively bright flash and is able to burn through holes in the uniforms of the enemy. In other words, now it is a very expensive flash-noise grenade, which in theory can be thrown at 10-20 kilometers.
Russian roots?
Without simulated patriotism, we can say that studies of plasma creation by femtosecond lasers in the Russian Federation were conducted 10 years ago. I do not know whether the development of prototype weapons has reached, but several impressive studies on this topic have been accurately written.
One of them is the dissertation of the Russian physicist Ivan Andreevich Makarov for the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences “Generation of high-temperature plasma and mass transfer of ablated particles when exposed to a sequence of high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses on solid-state targets in a gaseous medium”. Which he defended in 2008 year.
Unfortunately, I do not understand the subject so much to judge whether this research influenced the work of David Lowe. The works of researchers are related to the principle of obtaining plasma due to the effect of a femtosecond laser and work with objects in air (gas), and not in a vacuum.
Total
There is still a long way to field trials, but it is likely that the new weapon will work. I can hardly imagine whether it is possible to seriously frighten an enemy with a speech at a distance. But it is obvious that a certain effect such a weapon can provide. According to the optimistic opinion of the developers, serial models of these weapons will be able to replace all existing non-lethal weapons in the US Army. And we, it remains only to hope that the new principles can be applied in the peaceful technique.