Master Blaster: US Defense Contractor Develops New Laser Cooling System

A major US defense contractor has possibly discovered a new way of cooling aircraft-mounted laser weapons.

Northrop Grumman, US’ third-largest weapons manufacturer, may have come up with a new way of cooling aircraft-mounted laser weapons, though the research isn’t yet complete according to Aviation Week.

Apparently, the Northrop Grumman researchers proposed using the so called adaptive cycle aircraft engines to augment the laser weapons’ cooling and energy conservation systems.

One of the methods proposed by the design team involves a sort of accumulator module that would transfer heat to a dissipation circuit.

The circuit itself would be integrated into the second bypass duct of the adaptive cycle engine so that the heat would be dissipated by a stream of cool air passing through it.

According to the developers, this multi-layered system would allow a pilot to fire the onboard laser weapons almost indefinitely as he wouldn’t have to wait for the ‘guns’ to cool down; the system would also help decrease the aircraft’s thermal signature.

Technical experts at GE Aviation, the company that developed the adaptive cycle engines, believe that this method could also be employed for dissipating heat generated by other onboard radio-electronic systems and weapons.