Exotic Weapons - Plasma Cannon

[Boxcar]

After being reminded that North Korea could well have ballistic missles capable of hitting North America, I did a quick search on ABM systems to see how close we were to having some sort of working protection from a launch.

Found this interesting tidbit from Jane’s

Boeing considers feasibility of plasma-based weapons
March 28, 2001

(snip)

There are two possible engineering approaches. One is to divert the plasma into a chamber, excite it, introduce a laser-critical gas such as argon and direct the resultant energy through highpower optics as a laser beam. The other is to wrap small compact rings or ‘toroids’ of plasma energy in intense magnetic fields and fire them from a weapon as ‘bullets’ at air or ground targets.

In the early 1990s, the US Air Force was preparing tests at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, designed to lead to a ground-based plasma-weapon in the late 1990s capable of firing plasma bullets at incoming ballistic missile warheads. The enabling technology was a ‘fast capacitor bank’ called Shiva Star that could store 10 million joules of energy and release it instantaneously. Officials anticipated firing bullets at 3,000km/sec in 1995 and 10,000km/sec - 3% of the speed of light - by the turn of the century.

The tests absorbed little more than a few million dollars of annual funding (Jane’s Defence Weekly 29 July 1998).

Dumped into the ‘soft’ electronics of a re-entry vehicle, the bullets were envisaged as destroying multiple manoeuvring warheads at rapid reacquisition rates. By the second half of the last decade, the Shiva/plasma bullet programme was officially dropped. Observers have remarked on how its sudden disappearance at the time the firing tests were scheduled was redolent of a transition to the classified environment.

Interesting, if this works there should be more on the web.

From FAS

Ogonek Report on `21st Century Weapons’ – Plasma Shield Able To Protect Entire Planet From Nuclear ThreatMoscow OGONEK in Russian, Apr 95 No 16, p 35
(snip)
For practical purposes plasma weapons have already been created in Russia. Their action is based on focusing beams of electromagnetic energy produced by laser or microwave radiation into the upper layers of the atmosphere. These beams would be able to defeat any target flying at supersonic or near-sonic speeds in the near future. A cloud of highly ionized air arises at the focus of the laser or microwave rays, at an altitude of up to 50 kilometers. Upon entering it, any object–a missile, an airplane, is deflected from its trajectory and disintegrates in response to the fantastic overloads arising due to the abrupt pressure difference between the surface and interior of the flying body. What is fundamental in this case is that the energy aimed by the terrestrial components of the plasma weapon–lasers and antennas–is concentrated not at the target itself but a little ahead of it. Rather than “incinerating” the missile or airplane, it “bumps” it out of trajectory.

The Government, via the Airforce, has at least one outfit dedicated to operational safety, based at, strangely enough, Kirtland AFB. They are described as

a new initiative to ensure safe operation and maintenance of all new and emerging high energy density directed energy weapon (DEW) and kinetic energy weapon (KEW) systems. Some examples of such upcoming weapon systems are Airborne Laser (ABL), High Power Microwave (HPM), Sonic (flocculators) Weapons, and Plasma Launchers (Electric Gun).

Upcoming…hmmmm. This sounds really promising.

Unfortunately, about 99 percent of a search that includes “plasma” brings up gaming related items. Hoping some folks who understand the physics can explain this thing in layman’s terms.

Was wondering:

1. Is the science behind this real or just some overhyped dreams that look good but aren’t technically feasable?

2. Jane’s seems to suggest that the US has or is close to a working system that was taken “dark” in or about 1998. However, wouldn’t this working system be something to trumpet? Anyone seen anything else out there in the technology areas? Are we talking viable weapon here? How soon could we field it?

3. The two reports seem to suggest different strike methods. The Russian report seems to say the plasma charge would result in an atmospheric disturbance with resulting overpressures leading to destruction of the target, while Jane’s seems to suggest the effect would be more an electrical disruption. What would be the likely effects of a “plasma bullet”? Would the weapons as described be considered directed energy or projectile type?

4. What the heck am I talking about when I say “plasma”, anyway?

Thanks in advance.

[toadspittle]

4. What the heck am I talking about when I say “plasma”, anyway?

Plasma is another state of matter (like solid, liquid, gas). Basically, you heat up a gas so much that the electrons are stripped away from the atoms, ionizing the gas.

So, if I’m not mistaken, you now have two things going for you:

1. It’s really hot and therefore has a lot of energy (which could damage stuff)
2. It’s electrically charged (which could damage stuff also, but which further means that you can control and direct it with electromagnetic fields)

That’s all I can offer. I know zero about the feasibility of such weapons.

[Patty_O_Furniture]

Since I have nothing better to do, here’s a link to the airborne laser.

[Tuckerfan]

Of course, in order to have an effective weapon, you’re going to need one heck of a power supply! Where you’re going to get that, without using nuclear energy, I have no idea. IIRC, bbeaty, has played around with such things.

[DougC]

• • • I read somewhere that one type of plasma cannon that you could build was a railgun without any projectile, just the aluminum foil, and with different shaped electrodes (a “pole” in the middle of a “tube”, instead of two separate rails and a ring-shaped piece of aluminum foil). It kinda “sprays” though, something right in front of the barrel is in big trouble but it doesn’t shoot a long-distance ball of anything. It’s hard on your electric bill too.
• You can put together a CO2 laser for just a few hundred bucks and burn stuff with it. I haven’t done it myself, but others have.
  ~

[Whack-a-Mole]

It seems to me the main problem with plasma, lasers or whatever is attenuation through the atmosphere. That is, as the projectile/beam/whatever travels it loses potency (just like a flashlight dims over distance). To have an effective weapon (to shoot anything beyond a mile or two) you need a helluva lot of power and that becomes its own problem.

I have no idea how plasma weapons are affected by the atmosphere but it’s something to consider.

[SPOOFE]

All I want to know is if the plasma bullets are colored green or red.

[Tuckerfan]

*Originally posted by SPOOFE *
**All I want to know is if the plasma bullets are colored green or red. **

FWIW, I heard that if you’re Samuel L. Jackson, you can get your plasma bullets colored purple!

[Urban_Ranger]

It seems that particle beams are more practical.