Lasers in space: Sci-fi or sci-reality?

OPINION:

The short answer is: reality, and it can’t be soon enough.

As debate advances around the technological aspects of President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile shield, there are real questions about the extent to which next-generation missile defense should incorporate non-kinetic energy weapons to neutralize advanced adversarial missile threats.

Lasers are classified as non-kinetic energy weapons, and several terrestrial laser weapon systems are in development right now. These systems will solve emerging problems such as drones, superfast cruise missiles and very short-range ballistic missiles and counter new threats at sea and on land.

But … lasers in space would be truly disruptive.

These could completely nullify the long-range, maneuvering hypersonic threat to the U.S. homeland. When properly orbited and powered, they would send China’s new anti-satellite weapons program back to the showers.

Before we get into that, let’s talk a little bit about what makes a directed energy (i.e., laser) weapon so different. Apart from the sci-fi cool factor, a laser can do things that no kinetic system can.

Directed energy systems possess unique characteristics.

The most obvious one is speed — light speed, to be exact. Once a laser finds a target, it doesn’t matter how fast that target is moving. From the standpoint of the 186,000-mile-per-second incoming “round,” the target is standing still.

Uniquely, a directed energy system’s power is throttleable. You can choose how much destructive energy to apply. It can be a gentle dazzler that temporarily blinds an optical sensor or go full power to burn holes through solar panels or blow up structures. A laser weapon has “dialable effects” ranging from annoying to lethal.

Directed energy systems are also extraordinarily precise. Because they are optically directed, they can track an object with extreme precision. When we first demonstrated my old Area Defense Anti-Munitions laser weapon system, we were able to lock onto just the control module of a drone from 2 kilometers away.

Laser weapons also provide an absurdly low cost per kill. For ADAM, we used an off-the-shelf gasoline generator and a commercial welding laser. The beam control and fire control systems were custom and held the secret sauce. Our most challenging targets required about 12 ounces of gas. Comparing the $1 cost per kill of this system to anything else is no comparison at all.

When I worked on the Airborne Laser, a multimegawatt missile defense system that filled an entire 747 aircraft, its photons were made by burning chemicals. By the time we were killing Qassam missiles with ADAM, lasers were electric. So, if you have electricity, you have “ammunition,” creating a “bottomless magazine.”

Now that we understand why lasers are so special, what can we do with them in space?

Let’s start with the hypersonic threat that has everyone in a state of such anxiety. This threat waits until we commit an interceptor, and then it maneuvers out of its path. Against a laser, that strategy won’t work. You can’t outmaneuver the speed of light.

Putting the laser in space has special advantages when the hypersonic threat is very long range. A directed energy weapon must have a line of sight to its target. A system on the ground cannot engage the threat until it rises above the horizon. A hypersonic glider can approach our homeland from any direction. The practical way to cover this is from space, where the horizon is at least 2,000 miles wide.

A laser also has unique advantages when attacking threats in space. Extraordinarily long lines of sight exist, and without atmospheric diffraction, lasers have very long ranges. Large orbital regions can be defended from “killer sats” and missiles launched from Earth.

Another important ability is the laser’s precision and dialable effects. Space is a unique environment. If you “shoot something down,” it doesn’t actually go down. A kilometers-wide debris cloud, sweeping along at orbital velocities, can do more damage than the weapon you “stopped.”

With a directed energy weapon, we can choose what we want to do. We could disable its sensor so it can’t find its target, or degrade its solar panels, vent its propellant or disable its avionics. You get the idea.

Now, let’s talk about the power to run the laser.

We will need lasers in the range of 10 kilowatts to 30 kilowatts. That seems a bit challenging but doable. Not so fast! Unfortunately, 10 kilowatts of electrical power in does not equal 10 kilowatts of laser power out. We might need up with as much as 50 kilowatts to 150 kilowatts to feed our orbiting laser platform. We might charge capacitor banks to get a shot off. However, that’s not going to be a robust solution.

We need the ability to continuously fire on one target after another.

We can do that in two ways: We can use chemical fuels to run electrical generators (it’s a good thing we developed an internal combustion OX/H2 engine and generator combo at United Launch Alliance a while back), or we can use a small nuclear reactor.

So there we have it. Laser weapons have come a long way in the past couple of decades. They are now practical and have special capabilities uniquely suited to the challenges of space. Their completely disruptive nature would instantly deter Russia and China from aggression in that domain, buying peace in the highest of all high grounds for years to come.

So, let’s get going!

• Tory Bruno is the president and CEO of United Launch Alliance.