Re: Missile Defence, the live version

[Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:08:54 EDT, Dude VanWinkle said:

> You could probably configure the lasers to diffuse after they exit the
> permeter.

Hmm.. How do you do that, exactly?  Remember that the whole point of the
laser is that those photons are going *straight*.  Of course, in reality,
what you get is a very skinny cone, and you can change the angle of the
vertex slightly.  But once it leaves, you're stuck with it.  If the beam
has diverged to 0.2 inches at 5 miles, it's going to be 0.4 inches at 10
miles, and still 1/4 the power per unit area.  You can't make it be
"useful against missiles" at 5 miles, and "safe" at 6 miles.

>  Also, it doesnt have to be a metal cutting laser, just one
> that will heat up the missile enough to cause detonation.

Remember that one end of the missle is *already* on fire and designed to
withstand some serious heat for at least a few seconds - and the other end
is being cooled by some really serious airflow.  And keep in mind that many
of the explosive payloads are going to be hard to trigger by mere heating,
they often need a detonator cap (probably buried *well* inside where it's
hard to hit) or electrical discharge or similar.

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