Question about laser guidance system

[Myth_buster_1]

The laser is pointed towards a target in order to direct the weapon. Will the laser be visible at one point, or is it invisible through out the course of the weapon? and how maneuverable can a laser guided weapon be?

 

[Chogy]

I think they use IR lasers that are invisible to the human eye.

 

[gambit]

The laser is pointed towards a target in order to direct the weapon.

Yes.

Will the laser be visible at one point,...

No.

...or is it invisible through out the course of the weapon?

Yes...There are lasers in the x-ray region. For military purposes, that would be extremely unnecessary, but laser guided weapons, such as the JDAM, do not display beams crisscrossing the sky.

and how maneuverable can a laser guided weapon be?

As maneuverable as flight control technology allow. Remember, any body that require and exploit aerodynamic forces qualify as an 'aircraft', just that powered aircrafts can be more maneuverable than non-powered ones. That mean a rocket will be more maneuverable than a gravity powered bomb.

 

[500]

Release envelope of laser guided bomb depends a lot on how it is aerodynamically built and sensitivity of warhead. For example Paveway III release envelope is much larger than Paveway II (it can make 90 grad turn).

 

[Myth_buster_1]

thanks guys.

So laser guidance is more effective simply because it is harder to jam where as a internal guided weapon system may be more accurate but prone to jam. is that right?

 

[below_freezing]

Yes.


No.


Yes...There are lasers in the x-ray region. For military purposes, that would be extremely unnecessary, but laser guided weapons, such as the JDAM, do not display beams crisscrossing the sky.


As maneuverable as flight control technology allow. Remember, any body that require and exploit aerodynamic forces qualify as an 'aircraft', just that powered aircrafts can be more maneuverable than non-powered ones. That mean a rocket will be more maneuverable than a gravity powered bomb.

They're IR lasers. Xray lasers are extremely hard to produce and require a particle accelerator with diameters measured in kilometers.

Otherwise everything you said is true.

 

[gambit]

They're IR lasers. Xray lasers are extremely hard to produce and require a particle accelerator with diameters measured in kilometers.

Really...???

https://www.llnl.gov/str/Dunn.html

In contrast, a team at Livermore has developed a small "tabletop" x-ray laser that can be fired every three or four minutes. By using two pulses--one of about a nanosecond and another in the trillionth-of-a-second (picosecond) range--their laser uses far less energy and does not require the cooling-off period.

New Technique Opens Door To Tabletop X-Ray Laser

New Technique Opens Door To Tabletop X-Ray Laser

Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 26, 2007

Most of today's X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums, making their use impractical.

"We've come up with a good end run around the requirement for a monstrous power source," Kapteyn said.

CU physicists use ultra-fast lasers to open doors to new technologies unheard of just years ago

Most of today's X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums or larger, making their use impractical. Murnane and Kapteyn generate coherent laser-like X-ray beams by using an intense femtosecond laser and combining hundreds or thousands of visible photons together. And the key is they are doing it with a desktop-size system.

 

[gambit]

thanks guys.

So laser guidance is more effective simply because it is harder to jam where as a internal guided weapon system may be more accurate but prone to jam. is that right?

Essentially...Yes.

But 'guidance' imply an external source so there really is no such thing as an 'internal guided' system. There is 'inertial navigation' which is basically a guessing system that relies strictly on internal sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers that detects displacements. An INS system that has no external correlative measures is prone to 'drift' and the error increases with distance and time.

What we want is to 'illuminate' the target using the EM spectrum: either radar or laser. We control the medium. We send the medium towards the target. With infrared (IR) the target control the medium, meaning we rely upon the target to provide some form of external guidance, which is infrared radiation.

 

[Myth_buster_1]

Essentially...Yes.

But 'guidance' imply an external source so there really is no such thing as an 'internal guided' system. There is 'inertial navigation' which is basically a guessing system that relies strictly on internal sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers that detects displacements. An INS system that has no external correlative measures is prone to 'drift' and the error increases with distance and time.

What we want is to 'illuminate' the target using the EM spectrum: either radar or laser. We control the medium. We send the medium towards the target. With infrared (IR) the target control the medium, meaning we rely upon the target to provide some form of external guidance, which is infrared radiation.

great answer.
So it is impossible for the laser designator or anything to leave any sort of light on the target before the impact.

 

[beamq]

The laser is invisible, invisible beam, invisible dot. It has a wavelength we can't see it.

 

[500]

thanks guys.

So laser guidance is more effective simply because it is harder to jam where as a internal guided weapon system may be more accurate but prone to jam. is that right?

I dont know what u mean by "internal guided weapon". Inertial prolly? Actually laser guided weapons are very accurate. They are also relatively cheap. Disadvantages of laser guided weapons are follow:

1) affected by dust, fog
2) laser targeting has limited range
3) not fire and forget
4) laser spot can be detected by sensors and give warning to the target.