Is it possible to replace our Patriot missiles in the battlespace with man portable laser weapons with in the next three to five years? Can we make these a shoulder launched or easily transportable to set up on a temporary stanchion and ready to fire at will? Can we use compressed gas canisters for the chemical laser system of the defense weapon? If so would these be less weight and more bang for the luggability for the men carrying these units into the battlespace? Would it be better to simply mount the system into a fast moving robotic Sandia Labs “Sarge” type unit or would it simply be easier to mount the whole friggin thing on the DARPA Challenge Award Winning Volkswagon?
One positive aspect to a laser system is unlike the Patriot Missiles, you do not have to take all those missiles with you only the gas canisters to light up the laser unit. Could you have enough seconds on the target with a man portable unit to take out a SCUD Missile? Would you have enough power output? If this devices was on a backpack could the soldier even aim it and hold it steady enough to take out such a fast moving target using hand-eye coordination? Probably not, as the human would need an electronic lock-on and fire device associated with the system. So then could one say that this devices would be very high-tech, complicated, difficult to use and with all its needed electronics too heavy and “Murphy” prone?
Indeed and the man portable would not work if fired off the shoulder because a human is a top heavy organic unit and would wobble when firing something that has to be that accurate in time and 3D space to work, which a laser must be to take out an incoming aircraft or missile. Should it be mounted on a tripod unit like the multi-Stinger systems? As why would you want a shoulder launched system, as men hesitate and have to wait for orders, choke under pressure and by then the missile has gone by, you lose.
Would it be better to mount such a system on a robotic unit floating off shore or an aerial mine field, with pre-determined protocols and just let everyone in the world know the stuff is there and don’t be flying in at Mach 1 or greater unannounced then it will be disintegrated and will disappear into a million tiny pieces of debris.
The more you ask of such a man-portable or shoulder launched device the bigger the weapon becomes, the project gets and thus eventually you run up the costs and cannot compete with current already proven systems. This of course makes it quite a challenge, but also worthy of the effort of man’s mind, as war is a sense which gives us purpose or so it has been said in past and present periods by philosophers of the sound and fury.
Now then is this possible, can we really make something that is lightweight, easy to fire, accurate to a grape fruit size at 1-3 miles while the target travels at the speed of sound or greater? Hard to say if this is a feasible endeavor, although such a defensive weapon is needed for our “Blue Force” in the Battlespace can it actually be built and if so, will it actually work? Think on this.
“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/
