(December 11, 2014 at 1:45 pm)Heywood Wrote:(December 11, 2014 at 1:20 pm)Chuck Wrote: I wonder how soon it would be before people start to install angle reflectors on their missiles so any laser beam pointed at the missile will be reflected back to the laser projectors and damage or destroy it.
The difference between a laser weapon and a projectile weapon is a target can reflect the laser straight back at the laser gun. No one had invented anything that can bounce a bullet straight back at the gun that fired it.
Mirrors do not reflect 100% of the energy so even if hit with a laser they would begin to heat and distort/discolor. Further mirrors only reflect a narrow range of wavelengths. If you want to destroy a mirrored surface with a laser, then fire a laser whose frequency is not reflected by the mirrored surface. A variable frequency laser would easily defeat the mirrored surface defense.
Review the definition of laser and the principle by which laser is generated. It is very difficult for laser emitter to significantly vary the frequency of the laser beam it emits.
Reflector does not need to reflect 100% of the energy impinging on it. It only has to reflect laser back to the laser emitter with higher efficiency than the laser emitter itself can absorb the laser reflected back to it in order to win.
