Cool toy, but probably not very useful. In order to be "man portable" the power will be low enough that the operator will likely have to keep the laser on the drone for several seconds, which is pretty hard to do, particularly on a moving, drone sized target. Smoke, fog, or rain will degrade the performance significantly. Heck, even humid air will degrade it.
We cut stainless steel with a 6,000 watt fiber laser where I work. It's pretty awesome, but the cutting head has to be pretty close to the material being cut. And the resonator is quite large. It's also powered by 480 Volt power.
There's a reason the ones the U.S. are working on are vehicle mounted and RADAR guided.
We cut stainless steel with a 6,000 watt fiber laser where I work. It's pretty awesome, but the cutting head has to be pretty close to the material being cut. And the resonator is quite large. It's also powered by 480 Volt power.
There's a reason the ones the U.S. are working on are vehicle mounted and RADAR guided.
