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Laser Cannon
The profile shows that the U.S. military wanted to create an airborne laser system in the 1970s.
According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Chinese scientists are researching and developing the world's most supercapacitors. If research is successful, weapons in the Star Wars movie will become a reality.
Many countries have developed prototypes of directed-energy weapons, such as laser cannons and railguns. However, due to their size and weight, these weapons are rarely used on the battlefield.
For example, the Boeing YAL-1 airborne laser test rig system must be installed on a 400-ton Boeing 747 aircraft, but its power is limited to destroying a small drone. The related project was cancelled in 2012.
A laser scientist said that this is not a scientist's fault. After decades of research, they have reduced the actual volume of laser weapons to just luggage. But the problem is: These weapons need a lot of electricity to drive.
Storage devices that provide large amounts of energy in a short period of time are called capacitors. Capacitors that are widely used today and have a small size include starter motors used in vehicles and medical implants.
Laser weapons and other electric weapons require the use of bulky or rather bulky capacitors in order to store energy and increase power. Traditionally, such capacitors are unusually heavy and some are even larger than shipping containers.
Today, a team led by Professor Huang Fuqiang, a professor from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reportedly made breakthroughs in capacitor technology. They published papers in the latest issue of Science, explaining how their supercapacitor energy density can reach 26 kilowatts per kilo, which is equivalent to 130 times the output energy of lithium-ion batteries.
Bayara-1 laser guns require one megawatt of output power to launch. If traditional technologies are used, capacitors must meet this power requirement and their weight must exceed 10 tons. In theory, the ultracapacitor invented by Prof. Huang Fuqiang's team may weigh as little as 40 kilograms.
Professor Zhu Heyuan, a laser technologist at Fudan University in Shanghai, although not involved in the study, said: “If the weight of the power plant can be significantly reduced, the weight of the laser system will also be reduced, so that it can be installed on fighter jets and spacecraft.â€
"If new technologies are feasible and the military agrees to use them, then in the near future, the weapons we see in Star Wars movies may become a reality."
But there is another problem: The energy storage capacity of capacitors is very low, so even if they have high output power, their continuity may not be enough to cause fatal damage to enemy targets.
Prof. Huang Fuqiang's invention of the capacitor has exceeded the limits of traditional capacitors, and the stored electricity reaches 41 watt-hours per kilogram. Although this capacity is smaller than that of a lithium battery, it is equivalent to a lead-acid battery used today in automobiles. This is the first time in the world that capacitors have the same storage capacity as mainstream batteries.
This capacitor can provide greater energy storage, so it can be applied to other advanced weapons.
In recent years, rapid development has been achieved in the development of electric weapons used by the Navy and the Army. Take a railgun as an example, it uses electromagnetic force, so the projectile can be accelerated to 10 times the speed of sound, can hit long-distance targets, penetrate thick tank armor, and intercept incoming missiles.
Like laser cannons, these new weapons are too heavy, so most aircraft cannot be installed. The United States Navy had tested the world's most powerful railgun, which could emit 32 megajoules of kinetic energy, and only warships can carry such weighted power supplies.
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