We are now designing high-energy airborne lasers small enough to put into fighter aircraft. The device would be the size of a large refrigerator laid on its side. This will help us when we go to war with China, because they have 8000 plus fighter aircraft and we have maybe 500 or less. So in other words we will not have enough missiles to shoot them all down. So having on board lasers is a good idea. But if we are using chemical lasers we will need places to store compressed gases that will be used for the lasers, such as Argon or CO2. Yet in most fighters we have limited space for such storage and if we use drop tanks that will take away our ability to maintain stealth in the battlespace, so we need to think about putting these tanks inside the wings of the aircraft. As long as we have chemical lasers onboard we might also think about using the chemical gas lasers to create mini-tornadoes or eddies above the wings to increase lift. If we store the gas in the outer wings of the aircraft they will stay cool due to the ambient air at altitude. Storing the gas in the fuselage may be problematic due to the heat of the engines, as the gases are volatile and we do not wish to use aircraft or UAVs to accidents unnecessarily. We also need to consider complete expenditure of these gases while airborne because one rough landing aboard the Aircraft Carrier and the whole thing could go up. After all we are just now being able to trust our UAVs to land on the ship with their arresting gear out. So we need to be thinking here. |
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