China advancing laser weapons program equals or surpasses US

[vector7]

China advancing laser weapons program
Technology equals or surpasses U.S. capability

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Posted: November 22, 1999
1:00 am Eastern
By Jon Dougherty

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WorldNetDaily.com

Not only is the Chinese military advancing rapidly in the field of anti-satellite, anti-missile laser weapon technology, but its technology equals or surpasses U.S. laser weapons capabilities currently under development, informed sources have told WorldNetDaily.

According to Mark Stokes, a military author specializing in Chinese weapons development, Beijing's efforts to harness laser weapons technology began in the 1960s, under a program called Project 640-3, sanctioned by Chairman Mao Zedong. The Chinese, he said, renamed the project the "863 Program" in 1979, after a Chinese researcher named Sun Wanlin convinced the Central Military Commission "to maintain the pace and even raise the priority of laser development" in 1979.

Today, Beijing's effort to develop laser technology encompasses over "10,000 personnel -- including 3,000 engineers in 300 scientific research organizations -- with nearly 40 percent of China's laser research and development (R & D) devoted to military applications," Stokes wrote in an analytical paper provided to WorldNetDaily.

China's "DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) research (is) part of a larger class of weapons known to the Chinese as 'new concept weapons' (xin gainian wuqi), which include high power lasers, high power microwaves, railguns, coil guns, (and) particle beam weapons," Stokes said. "The two most important organizations involved in R&D of DEW are the China Academy of Sciences and the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND)."

To underscore Beijing's fixation with laser weaponry, the Hong Kong Standard reported Nov. 15 that the Chinese have developed a laser-based anti-missile, anti-satellite system.

"China's system shoots a laser beam that destroys the [guidance systems] and causes the projectile to fall harmlessly to the ground," the paper said.

The report also noted that Beijing had "conducted tests of its new technology since August 1999," and said the system was "similar to the laser defense system technology being developed by the U.S. Air Force."

Rick Fischer, a congressional Chinese military hardware expert, told WorldNetDaily that recent photographs of Chinese main battle tanks taken during military parades held in celebration of China's 50th anniversary of Communism in October showed "what was described as a photoelectric device that may have been a ground-based laser equivalent" of the same ASAT system.

Fischer said the U.S. is currently developing a similar weapon, whereby "a ground-based laser would be capable of producing a 'dazzle'" strong enough to knock an incoming missile off course."

However, he cautioned, "the Chinese may have beat us to the punch," though he said attempts to classify the new battle tank equipment as "definitely laser technology" were inconclusive.

As early as 1997, the Army reported successfully test-firing a ground-based laser called MIRCL at an orbiting Air Force MSTI-3 research satellite as it passed over the Army's White Sands, New Mexico, test facility. According to one published report, "Two bursts from the chemical laser struck a sensor array on the MSTI-3 craft."

The U.S. firms Boeing and TRW are also developing an airborne laser defense system, fitted to a cargo model of the 747 airliner, that would be capable of targeting incoming ICBMs and other medium-range missiles, either destroying them or rendering them incapacitated.

U.S. officials downplayed the results of the Army's laser tests, saying only that they were "a research experiment, not a step towards a space weapon."

But since the Hong Kong newspaper account, officials and experts in the United States have begun to re-examine the issue of Chinese military laser technology, which now may be even more advanced than developments first revealed by the Cox Committee.

According to the Cox report, Beijing had already managed to obtain sensitive laser technology enabling them to test miniature nuclear weapons and to assist the Chinese navy in locating hard-to-find U.S. nuclear submarines.

Unclassified documents provided to WorldNetDaily also provide detailed technical information on new Chinese beam director designs for high-powered laser weapons -- specifically those designed for eventual "anti-satellite missions," anti-missile applications and for blinding combatants in the field. Stokes said the Chinese were especially interested in the development of "free electron laser" weapons, "because they have a number of advantages, including their adjustable wavelength and bandwidth and their potential range of 5,000 kilometers."

According to documents, Li Hui, Director of the Beijing Institute of Remote Sensing Equipment, a developer of optical precision and photoelectronic guidance systems for surface-to-air missiles, "has cited laser technology as the only effective means to counter cruise missiles."

Hui has "encouraged the acceleration of laser weapons development," the documents said, while stressing that an "anti-cruise missile laser weapon" already developed by China "utilizes...the most mature high-energy laser technology, the deuterium-fluoride (DF) chemical laser."

"Li Hui's statement advocating ground-based laser weapons for use against missiles is not the first by a Chinese weapons developer," the documents said. "The 1028th Research Institute (RI) of the Ministry of Information Industry, a major Chinese developer of integrated air defense systems, has analyzed the use of lasers in future warfare.

Such uses include active jamming of electro-optics, blinding combatants and damaging sensors, causing laser-guided weapons to deviate from their true targets, and target destruction."

The 1028th's analysis, the papers said, "concluded with the statement, 'The appearance of laser weapons will have a significant impact on modern warfare. On today's electronic battlefield, it is natural for defensive systems to use low-energy laser weapons to damage enemy electronic equipment. When high-energy lasers that can directly destroy tanks, planes and ships develop and mature, they will be formidable offensive weapons.'"

Stokes' research supports the Cox Committee's conclusions about Chinese intentions to build a variety of high-tech laser weapons. Though he said "there is no proof or strong indication that development" of such weapons "is in a more advanced stage in China than in the U.S.," he notes that China's People's Liberation Army "is placing greater emphasis on lasers and their potential military applications."

"The Academy of Military Science, the PLA's leading think-tank on future warfare," Stokes said, "believes lasers will be an integral aspect of 21st century war."

/news/archives.asp?ARCHIVE_ID=16Charles Smith, a WorldNetDaily staff writer and founder of Softwar, wrote Jan. 26 that new Chinese laser systems not only are rapidly advancing, but they incorporate microchip technology obtained through export from the U.S.

"The Clinton administration allowed the export of advanced radiation-hardened microchip technology, vital electronic components for military satellites and nuclear weapons, to Russia and China," Smith wrote. The technology allowed China to build air-defense laser systems powerful enough to deliver an "estimated...10,000 watts of output power on a target up to 500 miles away." Smith said the Chinese are preparing to deploy "an even more powerful ground-based laser by the year 2000."

The Pentagon declined to comment on current Chinese laser weapons development, but most experts who spoke with WorldNetDaily believe the Chinese have obtained advanced laser technology from multiple sources. They also believe Beijing is involved in an ongoing plan to "acquire" new laser weapons technologies either by producing them domestically, buying them or through espionage.

William Triplett II, co-author of the Chinese espionage bestseller, "Year of the Rat," and a new book detailing Chinese military prowess called "Red Dragon Rising," said he believed Beijing may have stolen some U.S. ASAT and laser technology, but indicated that in the end that may prove to be a small part of their developmental process.

"Right now the Chinese are in the cat-bird seat," he said. "They have holes in their capabilities, but they have access to cutting-edge military technology from both Russia and the U.S. What they couldn't get from us they have bought from Moscow."

Triplett said that while China's use of laser technology was "advanced," Beijing's ASAT and anti-missile laser weaponry was "not yet equal" to U.S. capabilities.

"The degree to which espionage" was involved with Chinese acquisition of laser technology "is really not clear," said Fischer. "We can assume with a high degree of certainty that Beijing is seeking Russian laser technology, but they themselves have devoted enormous resources" to the research and development of laser weaponry, he said.

Stokes added, "Chinese analysts see directed energy weapons as important for China's air defense and counterspace efforts. DEW efforts also reflect a diversification of China's nuclear weapons industry."

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Hong Kong media exposure: China unveiled heavy laser weapon

October 23, 2010
0 Comments
Hong Kong media exposure: China unveiled heavy laser weapon

The demonstration of laser weapons the United States shocked the world, and even the media is worried that the weapons will break the military balance between the major powers. In fact, China's research on laser weapons technology has already begun, and have achieved considerable results.

As early as 1964, Mao Zedong had laser weapons technology asked Nie, Nie immediately said: "must be done, even if just to put money into the sea have to do it." After discussion, the National Defense Science and Technology Commission decided to focus on research as a laser weapon weapons, and formally named the "6403 Project" (March 1964 the establishment of meaning.) The reason why China's top deep interest in laser weapons, mainly land for high-altitude defense considerations. At that time, U.S. combat weapons such as high-altitude strategic bombers, air defense threat to the mainland is very large. China's size and the number of missiles in the armed forces a serious shortage of both, which threaten helpless, and achieved initial breakthrough technology for high-energy laser weapon to bring hope to solve the above dilemma.

In 1964, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute formed a professional laser light machines ─ ─ Shanghai, the main high-power, large energy intensity laser research.After years of development, made a successful shot a laser device neutrons, so the world with admiration. Canadian experts have even said that China and the United States in this area has been at the same level. To the 1970s, caught in the immature technology and the wrong political move, the strong laser weapons project was temporarily shelved.

With the U.S. Star Wars plan stage, China is also the mid-1980s quietly re-open the laser weapons. The Chinese learned the previous lesson, objectives not be dead, try to use proven technology and flexible in order to "focus on basic, focusing on improving" as the guiding principle of this technology for a long time in the exploration of research.

Currently in the world, Russia's leading theory, the United States and Israel in the application of laser weapons in a leading position. Research on laser weapons in China, there are many rumors, but have not been confirmed by reliable sources. It is believed that China has the authority to enter the field of laser weapons expert, and master the five core technologies: laser materials, laser materials, the physical mechanism of radiation and imaging spectroscopy technique, a one-time fast tracking control technology, laser imaging technology and high-density energy reversible conversion carrier material technology.

There was an article saying the Internet, a code-named "death ray A" heavy laser weapons, China has successfully developed. Heavy strategic laser weapon system is mainly used to destroy the enemy's military satellites during the war and for military purposes hostile "space station", the second is to destroy enemy ground fixed and mobile nuclear missile silo and underwater nuclear submarines. The "death ray A" heavy laser weapon system the basic shape and deliver troops allegedly trial.

"Ta Kung Pao" 22 published reports describe the laser air defense weapon stepped onto the global contest of Taiwan. Reported that the previous test on the assembly of the aircraft of different laser weapons, which use a new generation of laser weapons, "solid-state lasers", not by chemical action produced by the laser beam. The range of the laser gun is a U.S. Navy secrets, but the U.S. media have said that they installed in the ship than the range for defensive purposes on the 20 mm gun away 3 times.

Reported that the development of air defense laser weapons for the purpose of analysis refers to the foreign media will be more and more unmanned aircraft generally used for surveillance and attack the fleet, it is necessary to develop unmanned aircraft defense against these weapons. At the same time, the system has also been developed to deal with small boats and anti-ship missiles, is expected to be fully operational by 2016."Jane's Defense Magazine" means, this is the real-world application of solid-state laser weapons began.

Chinese experts have questioned is not yet mature

The disclosure to the U.S. laser weapon experiment, "Ta Kung Pao," reported that Chinese military experts expressed doubts that the cost of other factors by the constraints put into practical application of laser weapons still exist from a considerable distance.

Song Xiaojun military experts that the U.S. laser weapons will be put into practical, yet not be immediately brought to China and other countries on the concept of defense transformation, including Russia, other major powers, including the research on laser weapons have been in progress.

For 2016, the argument may be put into use, Song Xiaojun that "unrealistic", the laser weapon technology is still "special premature." In his view, this weapons program more like a "pseudo-item" and even yet to be verified the authenticity of the video, "like the ballistic missile defense system is to fraud."

He believes that Americans are likely to "image projects", aimed to secure more financial support from the Congress. Song Xiaojun emphasized that laser weapons because of cost, technical and other reasons, the short term is unlikely to become a high cost-effective battlefield weapon.

Li Xiaoning, another means of military experts, laser weapons are not seen as effective, practical applications, there are many difficulties. "Now that there are many such reports, see the battlefield depends on the real effectiveness of it."

Song Xiaojun Li Xiaoning, and have said that laser weapons is really effective, if, like nuclear weapons will not be a unique situation, and no country willing to fall behind.


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11 November 2010

US Navy's Free Electron Super-Laser Energy Weapon ++

H/T BrianWang

The US Navy plans to equip its nuclear ships with powerful, tunable, free electron lasers which can serve as powerful energy weapons as well as serve several other functions. The Chinese military is developing a lethal "carrier killer" missile, meant to neutralise the power of the US aircraft carrier groups which may intervene in a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The US Navy wants to neutralise this threat in turn, as well as accomplishing many other weapons and non-weapons capabilities with the new, powerful laser.

All lasers require some kind of medium to turn light into high-energy beams--solid state lasers use crystals, while chemical lasers use (you guessed it) a stew of unfriendly chemicals. Both of those versions have their pros and cons, but neither is extraordinarily versatile; they generally power their lasers up to a certain wavelength and that’s that.

Free electron lasers, on the other hand, use a stream of supercharged electrons to power the laser at varying wavelengths. This versatility is why the Navy has referred to FELs as the Holy Grail of laser tech and why it has embarked on a $163 million quest to develop a working weapons system, $26 million of which is currently facilitating a development program at Boeing that’s due for delivery in 2012. _PopSci

Sure, everyone wants a “death ray,” as the Navy’s chief of research, Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, put it yesterday. But the program manager at the Office of Naval Research for the Free Electron Laser, Quentin Saulter, tells Danger Room that the Navy is looking at “multiple uses, not a single use” for its “Holy Grail” of lasers. And that might lighten the laser’s energy burden.

What would the laser do when it’s not trying to blast a missile out of the sky? “It can be used as a sensor,” Saulter says in an interview during the Office of Naval Research’s science and technology conference in Virginia. “It can be used as a tracker… It can enable kinetic kill systems to be more precise. It can be used for location, time-of-flight location, information exchange, can be used for communications, it can be used for target designation, it can be used for disruption.” _Wired_via_BrianWang

The US is involved in something of a new "arms race" with China, similar to an earlier arms race with the now-defunct USSR. But the US military will not be able to out-spend China the way it did the Soviets. And keeping a technological lead over the Chinese will be difficult when US corporations and labs are teeming with corporate and overseas spies -- and when US corporations themselves are vying with each other to transfer advanced technology to the Chinese, and to build huge new state of the art tech fabs and factories on the Chinese mainland.

The Chinese, in other words, will have the blueprints to the new weapons long before they are built. While Chinese infrastructure may be lagging in many areas of high technology, eventually they will be able to build and/or counteract whatever US labs invent and develop.

That is something the US military must keep in mind when it spends big money on advanced weapons.

Labels: China, military, weapons technoloy

[Kosciuszko]

It has always been risky tp fly in Alaska, but why all of sudden all these plane crashes there since June? Add to the laundry listt the 1988 "vintage" Canadian CF F-18 crashing recently on landing approach at 4 Wings CAF base in Cold Lake, Alberta. The pilot survived (they found him shivering near ths crash site in sub-zero waeather)


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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Evidence found at the remote, rugged Alaska site where an F-22 Raptor crashed indicates the pilot died, an Air Force official said Friday evening.
Part of the fighter jet's ejection seat was found at the site, which means Capt. Jeffrey Haney of Clarklake, Mich., was not ejected and could not have survived the Tuesday night crash, Col. Jack McMullen said.
"If the pilot was able to eject, the seat would go with him," McMullen said. Also, an emergency locator transmitter would have been activated if the pilot had ejected and it was not.
Also found were pieces of the flight suit Haney had been wearing.
No body or remains have been found at the site, which McMullen described as a wet area. He said the impact of the crash caused a large crater that swallowed up much of the jet. Recovery efforts are expected to last several weeks, given the challenges of removing the wreckage. McMullen said the effort involves about 130 personnel in temperatures that plunge to 20 below at night.

"It's a very austere location and we're having to set up tents and food," he said.

Haney's single-seat jet crashed during a training run about 100 miles north of Anchorage near Denali National Park. He was assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Wing, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
"Obviously, this is a huge loss for the 3rd Wing and for the Air Force, but it's even a greater loss and it's a very emotional time for the entire Haney family," said McMullen, the 3rd Wing commander.
Searchers found the crash site Wednesday but had not previously been able to extensively inspect the hard-to-reach wreckage.
An investigation team will look at the cause of the unknown crash, which occurred in clear conditions.
"The weather was beautiful," McMullen said. "You could see the ground, you could see mountains, you could see the terrain."
Haney was married with two children. Officials said he joined the Air Force in 2003 and has been at the Anchorage base for 4 1/2 years.
The F-22 took off Tuesday from the joint Air Force and Army base for a training run.
The jet and a second F-22 practiced "intercepts" and were nearing completion of the exercise when one aircraft disappeared from ground radar tracking and from communications with the other F-22 at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday. McMullen said the plane's transponder was acting normally and stopped transponding when the jet crashed.
An air search had been ongoing, with searchers looking for any sign of a parachute or a fire the pilot might have started had he been able to eject from the plane.
Alaska has had multiple fatal plane crashes since early June, including an Aug. 9 crash that killed former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and four others.
In July, a C-17 cargo jet from the 3rd Wing crashed at Elmendorf during a training demonstration for an air show, killing all four crewmen aboard. Other crashes occurred at Denali National Park, central Alaska and in a busy business district near downtown Anchorage.

[American Patriot]

I find it incomprehensible that the Chinese would shoot down a plane using a laser system...

1) Act of war they don't want if we find out.

2) Where is the laser? In an airborne platform? It would almost certainly HAVE to be based on distances from China to the US territory.

3) Could it be satellite based? Highly unlikely at this point in time - but it wouldn't be difficult for NORAD to know if there was Chinese hardware in space in the right place at the right time.

4) I don't know the details or specifications for our laser system - nor would I post them if I knew, but guessing from what I know about physics - the platform wouldn't meet or beat ours right now and the distances a laser can travel through air is somewhat limited.

Physics dictates that air heats up and ionizes which will tend to increase the "resistance" of the air. Of course, air moves and the ion trail too would move based on movement of the two objects, winds aloft and so forth, but essentially the systems would require a hell of a lot of power!

[Kosciuszko]

Free electron lasers, on the other hand, use a stream of supercharged electrons to power the laser at varying wavelengths. This versatility is why the Navy has referred to FELs as the Holy Grail of laser tech and why it has embarked on a $163 million quest to develop a working weapons system, $26 million of which is currently facilitating a development program at Boeing that’s due for delivery in 2012 (Popular Science)

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WND article in this section claims that Chinese laser could deliver 10K watts at 500 miles in 1999! Can anyone conceive a supercharged elctron beam laser originating from a submarine and transmitted to an overflying satelite which delivers the zap to the target below... The crash of the Canadian F-18 Superhornet occured at night and remains a "mystery" as of 10 days ago.
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The Canadian Press
Date: Thu. Nov. 18 2010 8:36 PM ET
COLD LAKE, Alta. — A Canadian Forces pilot who huddled for two hours in the cold and dark after he ejected from his CF-18 fighter jet wasn't seriously hurt when rescue crews found him at the crash site in northern Alberta.
Capt. Darren Blakie was on the final approach to Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake a few minutes before midnight Wednesday when his plane went down in a field 13 kilometres away.
He was discovered by rescuers scouring the area in a military helicopter when he set off a flare to attract their attention.
"He was found in fairly good condition, all things considered, and he was taken to hospital," said Capt. Nicole Meszaros, a spokeswoman for the air base.
Blakie -- a member of the 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cold Lake -- was examined by a military doctor at the local civilian hospital and was expected to be released.
Meszaros said Blakie was participating in a night training exercise at the time of the crash.
Capt. Keith Hoey, spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton, Ont., said it wasn't clear why the pilot had to eject. A flight safety team from National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa was to examine the wreckage and determine what happened.
Meszaros confirmed that the cause is still a mystery.
"We don't know what went wrong at this point of time," Meszaros said. "We don't like to speculate on that ... because it could compromise the outcome of the investigation."
Hoey said the emergency response to the crash was immediate, although "the weather and the fact that it was dark just made it difficult to find him."
Meszaros said the rescue crew and the RCMP worked together to pinpoint the scene.
"That effort to get everybody involved in finding the downed aircraft and finding the downed pilot was obviously critical in making sure Capt. Blakie survived after the crash."
Meszaros said she wasn't sure how many others may have been out flying. "Typically it's a group of pilots who go up and they do their training in a co-ordinated effort.
It was cold, but Meszaros wasn't sure if it was snowing. It was -13 C around that time, with the wind chill making it a bone-chilling -22 C.
Blakie would have been well-prepared, she suggested.
"One thing about flying in northern Alberta, our pilots are well-equipped and well-trained to deal with the elements, so when they go flying, they certainly wear the right military equipment to ensure their safety in the event of a crash," she said
"We have an extensive program run by our flight safety staff on the base . . . cold weather is something that members of the Canadian Forces operate in."
The crash is the second in Alberta involving a CF-18 in about four months.
In July, one of the jets exploded in a huge fireball during a low-speed, low-level practice run prior to an air show in Lethbridge.
The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, suffered back injuries when he ejected from the aircraft just seconds before it hit the ground.
The crash prompted the military to ground the demonstration team's fighter jets for the remainder of the year, although CF-18s have continued to fly at air shows in non-aerobatic roles.
Produced between 1982 and 1988, Canada's CF-18s are aging and due to be replaced by 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets in 2020. They are based in Cold Lake and Bagotville, Que., and the air force had 78 modernized CF-18s remaining as of September.
The $16-billion F-35 purchase has been controversial because the contract was untendered. A Liberal motion calling on the government to immediately cancel its deal with Lockheed Martin is likely to pass next week, but will not be binding on the government. The government maintains the F-35 is the best option available.

[vector7]

China closer to equipping warships with electromagnetic railguns, state media reports

By Euan McKirdy, CNN
Updated 0718 GMT (1518 HKT) January 4, 2019

A screengrab from China state media CCTV purports to show railgun technology on a PLA Navy landing ship.

(CNN)China is getting closer to equipping its warships with electromagnetic railguns, state media reports -- which, if true, means its fleet could soon boast some of the most advanced weapons technology on the planet.

Citing CCTV, the state-run Global Times on Thursday reported the underlying railgun technology -- which utilizes electrical power rather than explosives to launch projectiles -- was based on "fully independent intellectual property," rather than copied from other countries.

Unconfirmed sightings of a Chinese landing ship apparently equipped with a test railgun in an undisclosed location have circulated around the internet this week.

Military expert Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN that if the reports were accurate, the weapon was likely to be "a year or two away from being operational."

"They'll say it's operational -- what that mean the operational evaluation has started, (and they're) testing it under more realistic conditions," he said. "Typically you're looking at a year before being deployed."

Schuster said it was significant that China appeared to be transitioning from copying foreign weapon designs to "developing their own" technology.
"It also tells you (that China) is no longer 10-15 years behind (the US)... They are now approaching parity with the west in terms of weapons development," he added.

Technological sea change

Railgun technology, which uses electromagnetic force to send projectiles up to 125 miles at 7.5 times the speed of sound, is cheaper and more accurate than traditional gunpowder-based methods.

"Using a massive electrical pulse rather than a chemical propellant, the railgun can launch projectiles much farther than the 13-nautical-mile range of the US Navy's standard 5-inch naval gun," the US Office of Naval Research says.


An image from the US Navy showing some of the railgun tech in development.

Railgun projectiles also don't need explosive warheads -- they do their damage with sheer speed.

"(Railguns) give you more firepower, more range, (and they can be better) guided, as you control acceleration in the barrel," Schuster added.

China's MOAB?

The claim that China is a step closer to having a combat-ready railgun comes on the heels of another Global Times report that a Chinese arms company has tested a massive bomb which, according to a Chinese military analyst quoted in the story, "can easily and completely wipe out fortified ground targets such as reinforced buildings, bastions and defense shelters."

The device, developed by Chinese arms giant China North Industries Group Corporation, better known as NORINCO, is approximately 5 to 6 meters (17 to 20 feet) long, according to Wei Dongxu, the quoted analyst.

While smaller, the Chinese bomb is similar in capability to the US' GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "mother of all bombs."

MOAB, the US military's most powerful non-nuclear bomb, was first used operationally in 2017, when one was dropped on ISIS targets in Afghanistan, according to US officials.