I happened to see a show the other day on possible weapons of the future. I've seen a couple of shows in the past that were quite similar and each time they've brought up the possibility of controlling weather and using it as a weapon. As an offshoot of weather weapons, the always mention lightning and how controlling it would make for a spectacular weapon but so far there have been no practical theories on how to achieve control over where the bolt will go. Quite a few years ago I was thinking about that same concept and problem of control and a possible answer popped into my head as I was studying solid state lasers. The problem of control of the lightning bolts path is that in order to get the electricity to hit a specific target you would need to provide a conductive path from the electrical source to the intended target. Reading about lasers and their ability to ionize the air its traveling through I thought to myself, can a sufficiently ionized path through the air provide enough of a conductive path for the electricity to flow to a target? Would it be possible to make it flow in the intended direction and not back through the beam into the laser source, destroying the wrong end of the conductive path? Can an optical diode, in essence, be created allowing electrical flow in only one direction? One would think that a laser would be perfectly accurate and could provide astonishing ranges delivering near instantaneous destruction when coupled with the electrical potential equal to a bolt of lighting. It could theoretically be the most devastating weapon ever devised especially when used with today's targeting systems, or at least that's what I always liked to imagine. What do you think? Is it possible? Can it be built?

=)

There are some adventurous folks down in Florida that shoot model rockets trailing copper wires into thunderstorms to initiate a discharge.  Point of ground needs to be where you want the strike to occur, as you mentioned.  Microwave beam weapons will become the next generation of weaponry, in my opinion.

Yes, I've seen the model rocket and wire method; in fact that was what made me think about how you could accomplish the same thing via a more practical and useful method back when they first started using that trick to study lightning. It was quite a few years ago as I remember... they were selling the glassified sand sculptures that were created as the lightning grounded out through the bucket off sand that the end of the wire was stuck in to fund the research they were doing. Their method worked for what they were doing but wouldn't be of any practical use as a weapon. Being able to just point a perfectly straight beam at what you wanted to hit and have a massive amount of electrical potential essentially ground out instantaneously on what you're pointing at would make a very useful and effective weapon. It would have the same advantages as a typical laser, speed, accuracy, range, but would also have the extra kick of a few million volts and temperatures exceeding the surface of the sun at the point of impact. It falls under the same category as microwave weapons; they're all directed energy type of systems.

If a laser would work to create an ionized conductive link between you and your target that would solve one of the issues needed to make the weapon. The next hurdle would be in keeping the electrical flow going in the right direction, down the beam, from you to the target. Diodes keep electricity from going the wrong direction in solid conductors but how you'd create that effect for a non-solid conductor I haven't a clue. Maybe you wouldn't need anything at all. I haven't gotten into that aspect of the system yet. If you conquered that issue, the only significant one left would be in how to generate the electrical potentials you'd require. I'm sure it can be done but can it be done in the field?
 

That's an interesting concept, using a laser beam to create the conductive path.  I had not considered it before.  I wonder with a large enough capacitor bank and an established path to ground via laser beam, I would think one could generate a sufficient charge to send a bolt of plasma downstream.  In my mind, the "iffy" part would be if the charge would carry through to the target or if it would simply default to the nearest earth ground (path of least resistance).

I've messed around with homemade masers before, but I simply don't have the background (or resources) to play with anything beyond that.  Even with the financial resources, my lack of knowledge on the subject would certainly get me into trouble.

Interesting topic!

That's, of course, ignoring the fact that you'd need to shoot the laser through clouds and most target systems can't see through clouds in the first place.

TTFN

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Lightning would make a poor weapon, in most cases. Fragile airplanes are often struck by lightning with little damage. An airborne laser might do what you are thinking, however. An airplane is ungrounded and when it is struck by lightning it is really only in the path of the lightning to ground. If a laser ionized a path from the plane through the accumulated charge(cloud) to ground then the bolt would go to ground and not the plane. There would only be a small amount of charge that would go to the plane. I can't imagine how this would ever be a worthwhile effort, however.

Come on IRstuff, GPS/INS the be all & end all of weapons Guidance.  The 'spotter' could be flying below the cloud or for fixed targets previously located.

KENAT,

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You have a higher opinion of military GPS than I do.  Military GPS only has a about a 6-m CEP, which is not sufficient precise for small targets.

Overall target location performance is worse than that.   

TTFN

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Well, it's a while since I looked into it, but with a half decent localized correction factor, using all available satellites etc. you can get mm resolution and this was back in the 90's.

Now getting a GPS guided store that accurate is limited by the control laws of said store and being able to reliably correct the location etc. which you probably know more about than I.

However, on a reusable airborne platform where you could afford fancy GaINS etc.  I reckon you could probably do better than 6 meters, at least some of the time.

KENAT,

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Not with military GPS.  Commercial GPS with carrier phase detection, DGPS, etc. possibly.  But, military SAASM GPS, no.  Moreover, GPS is only part of the error allocation.  A typical targeting system has a short-range 25-m target handoff error specification, and the target pickup error specification is similar.

TTFN

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I'm pretty sure this stuff was the military band, but maybe things have changed, I'm sure you're more up to date than I.

I always find this quoted accuracy stuff amusing.  I've seen multiple stores that supposedly had an accuracy of several tens of meters hit almost the same spot on a target.  In one case we thought we'd lost track of one untill we realized it went through an existing whole.

I've also seen similar stores repeatedly miss a target almost as big as their CEP.

However, I better stop there.

KENAT,

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Much depends on what's doing the targeting.  There are things that have extremely high resolution, but are still limited by the accuracy of the target location system.

TTFN

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These were properly surveyed targets on ranges, so little error from the target location system.

KENAT,

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It's one thing to drive a GPS to a known location, but another to point an EO sensor and have the system do all the trig with the same accuracy.  Even on the stiffest platforms, a 1-milliradian platform bend results in an angle error resulting in a 10-m error at 10-km slant range

TTFN

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IRstuff, thanks for the info.  I was aware of some of the real world limitations, my first sentance of my first post was tongue in cheeck, but you've fleshed it out a little.

Interesting.

KENAT,

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