How does this perform in adverse weather conditions?
I'm thinking dust storms, rain, and fog — anything that puts droplets/dirt in the beam path is going to scatter/absorb energy.
Which brings us back to the old staple of warfare, the smokescreen.
I'm thinking dust storms, rain, and fog — anything that puts droplets/dirt in the beam path is going to scatter/absorb energy.
Which brings us back to the old staple of warfare, the smokescreen.
I wondered if they might make for a sort of 'fog plow' which would burn away the fog but the volume of air you would need to heat to keep a road cleared is rather huge.
Dust, and in particular volcanic ash (which is basically glass shards) are more of an issue. It raises the question of whether a missile could eject a powder to mitigate laser power landing on the missile.
[1] http://www3.alpa.org/portals/alpa/volcanicash/03_NASADC8AshD...
One could ask the very same thing about WWI era aircraft. Look at where we are today.
Presumably there would other defense systems to fall back on during adverse weather. Even if this first-generation laser system worked well only on days where it wasn't raining, that would still represent an enormous cost savings.