Fighter jets in the future could have “deflector shields” to protect them from being destroyed by laser weapons, according to Britain’s biggest defence firm.
Scientists at BAE Systems say aircraft, warships and armoured vehicles that are aware they are being targeted could protect themselves by using their own powerful “pulse laser” to heat up a small patch of atmosphere — about the size of a car — a short distance away.
This would act like a refracting lens, deflecting any incoming enemy laser beams. Such technology may be about 20 years away, according to Professor Nick Colosimo, a BAE “futurist”.
“We expect over the coming decades for many adversaries to employ laser-directed energy weapons, which can be used for self-defence purposes but can also be used offensively,” he said. “What we want to do is make sure we can protect ourselves against those sorts of weapons as they emerge.”
BAE believes using a pulse laser in this way could also be used to enhance the ability of infrared cameras and other sensors to spy on enemy positions.
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Infrared images picked up by an aircraft’s sensors could be magnified as they pass through a “lens” of heated atmosphere. Such temporary patches would not contribute to global warming, according to BAE.
Colosimo admits existing high-power pulse lasers, which are the size of dining tables, are not yet powerful enough to create a lens by heating the atmosphere. Yet the technology is “rapidly improving” and devices with enough power could be available by the 2030s, he said.
Laser beams can now be weakened or blocked by clouds but experts say the more powerful lasers of the future may be less affected by weather.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Defence awarded a £30m contract to produce a prototype laser weapon. If a demonstration in 2019 is successful, the first UK laser weapons could come into service in the mid-2020s.