Guiding supersonic projectiles using optically generated air density channels
Abstract
We investigate the feasibility of using optically generated channels of reduced air density to provide trajectory correction (guiding) for a supersonic projectile. It is shown that the projectile experiences a force perpendicular to its direction of motion as one side of the projectile passes through a channel of reduced air density. A single channel of reduced air density can be generated by the energy deposited from filamentation of an intense laser pulse. We propose changing the laser pulse energy from shot-to-shot to build longer effective channels. Current femtosecond laser systems with multi-millijoule pulses could provide trajectory correction of several meters on 5 km trajectories for sub-kilogram projectiles traveling at Mach 3.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 22, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4931144
Entities
People
- Luke A. Johnson
- Phillip A. Sprangle
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Naval Research Laboratory
- University of Maryland