Plasma weapons at home. Plasma weapons: modern developments. Turkish Plasma Weapon

Assume a rather futuristic scenario in which we can handle the energy needs of a portable laser weapons, realistic creation of plasma ammunition, etc.

From what I understand, the plasma cannon will fire a ball of plasma like a projectile that provides some kinetic energy and "burns" its target. A laser cannon is simply a continuous beam of energy that burns the target for as long as you shoot it.

What exactly would be the advantages of one over the other?

Obviously, lasers don't burn after they stop firing, but they are more "instantaneous" (moving at the speed of light, not the speed of the ejected projectile). Do they burn better than plasma? They are also silent and invisible.

Also, will a plasma pistol have an advantage over regular kinetic weapons? Will they have less kinetic impact? Less instant kill? Is the burn effect worth it?

I tried googling a lot for comparisons from a somewhat scientific point of view, but I usually end up finding threads about people comparing the performance of plasma and laser guns in a particular game or something like that, which is obviously not what I need - if anyone has useful links for me, I'll be glad to see it too.

Steve Jessop

How wavelike and implausible are the answers? For example, if one "invents" a somewhat stable moving "bubble" of a magnetic field, perhaps one could fill it with plasma and project it through the air. Assuming such a thing could exist, it would probably have the effect of essentially vaporizing (well, actually plasma) everything in its path for a certain amount of time/distance until the bubble collapses, releasing plasma in a final explosion. Hopefully at a sufficient distance from the weapon that the user is not too seriously inconvenienced.

Steve Jessop

Such weapons can be devastating (although not always the tactically correct tool for the job) depending on the total energy embodied in the plasma, but that doesn't mean a plasma weapon has those properties, it means that one thing fully prepared has those properties. Another finished item or the best plasma weapon we could create using contemporary plasma generation and containment technologies would have completely different properties as a weapon. You install "plasma ammo" without saying what it actually is.

Russell Borogov

Plasma weapons and laser weapons are equally bad compared to solid-fuel chemical propulsion.

whitepawn

I'm trying to clarify this question so as not to start new topic. Rick points out the problems with the atmosphere. Will it be a weapon that will work better in non-atmospheric areas? Besides, what keeps the heat of a plasma or laser gun from igniting the artificial atmosphere? O2 is combustible, and anything overheated in an enclosed space filled with O2 seems like a bad idea. Patients in hospitals set themselves on fire (including breathing, which sent fire right through their noses) because they went to smoke and caught fire in their rooms.

Answers

Serban Tanasa

Plasma weapons are a popular SF concept that just won't go away. They are found in places as diverse as the original Star Trek series and the Babylon 5 series. They play the role of a futuristic flamethrower.

Their main drawback is that they will not work.

Plasma is the so-called "fourth state of matter" and is mostly hot air. When we say something is hot, we are really talking about the speed at which its individual components oscillate around. Room temperature gas moves at a speed of about 500 m/s. Obviously, the plasma is really very hot. That is, it is a gas heated to temperatures comparable to inside stars or the center of a thermonuclear explosion, so that all atoms are ionized. Unfortunately, according to the virial theorem, the plasma wants to equalize its internal pressure with the external one, that is, it wants to expand into a scattered nothingness cloud. And since it's moving really really fast, that means that after the plasmoid has passed one second, its diameter will be approximately five thousand kilometers, i.e., it has dissipated into nothingness.

So I would go with lasers. :) For more information, make them gamma lasers.

Aron

Just like flamethrowers don't work, huh?

Serban Tanasa

@DaaaahWhoosh, assuming what I wrote isn't enough to convince you of the impossibility, what does it take to convince you?

Serban Tanasa

@Andrey if you know how to build a bullet sized shield that can hold a million degree plasma, I know some people with the power of fusion who want to talk to you

Serban Tanasa

@DaaaahWhoosh The gist of Virial's theorem is that any kinetic momentum you try to impart to your plasma is dwarfed (by a factor of 10000 or so) by the kinetic momentum of the individual particles in the plasma. So it's just boom.

peufeu

@Fire flamethrowers don't throw flames, they throw liquid and sticky napalm that burns and then continues to burn once it sticks to the target ;) Movie flamethrowers are just gas burners (for obvious safety reasons) and will be much less effective. ..

VZZ

The open source game UFO: AI has a believable design for both plasma and laser weapons, and in game description contains a very detailed detailed scientific explanation of how they work. All the advantages and disadvantages of plasma and laser weapons are presented in detail, both in the descriptions and in their game functionality, although the latter is a little abstracted. Highly powerful weapon late game is actually superior to the Alien Plasma Rifle as it is a normal kinetic weapon with a projectile that includes a very small amount of plasma, designed to explode after hitting a target, acting as a shaped charge to pierce armor, and as a very advanced version of real expanding bullets.

Other problems with plasma weapons may still hinder development, but plasma dissipation is not one of them.

Demigan

I'm always surprised that plasma people can't work! Imagine: “I have a great idea for a tank penetrator. You use something heavy that disintegrates under pressure and shape something around it so that it penetrates the armor in a hot water jet."

"yes," says his buddy, "but the lead will deform when fired and some kind of magnetic system is used to hold it together, build up pressure, and tend to keep the jet from working!"

To which people, even during the world wars, replied, "We might as well use something less outlandish, like materials we cheat on, for hardened shells that do just that."

Warm up the plasma while in the container as suggested by VSZ in his post. Use a high temperature resistant material like tungsten or as you are talking about future technologies use a graphene shell (can withstand a little more than the surface of the sun) and encase it in an insulator as graphene has this nasty habit of being one of the best conductors heat, known to man and losing heat, so annoying. This really makes it easier to heat up the plasma in the first place. Once it's in and out of the plasma, the plasma has this nasty habit of rapidly expanding. We usually refer to this as an "explosion". To maximize this, force the pod to break only at the point of impact, creating an instant shaped charge that sends hot plasma through the opponent.

As for laser weapons, atomic missiles(http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php) point out that lasers have to be very focused to work, and lasers are harder to keep together at a distance than people think when it comes to killing people with them. The best method they came up with is to fire 1000 laser pulses in 0.01 seconds. Each pulse lasts in joules or more and turns the surface of your target into steam or plasma. This plasma rapidly expands in a miniature explosion, most of which goes straight into the laser beam. To prevent the plasma from absorbing the energy intended for the target, you use pulses.

Each miniature explosion rips apart some of the material around it, causing large holes in your target every pulse. However, it is unlikely to be silent. Your computer is not silent because it needs to be cooled, you throw away a huge amount of power and even at its peak you have to assume that no more than 70-90% of the energy is used for the laser and the rest is a waste and it is extremely generous , since most estimates are around 50%. There is also the problem that you turn everything in the laser path into a plasma, including any dirt on the lens, which can damage it if it is not of high strength and heat resistant material, but it will not be silent.

Plasma weapons

What is a plasma weapon? Plasma weapons are one of the most popular ideas in science fiction. In the Babylon 5 universe, they use something called "PPG", which stands for Phased Plasma Gun. Nothing knows exactly what "phase" means, because the weapon fires individual plasmoids, but that's not too important, since "phase" is just one of those scientific terms that have long since lost their meaning thanks to technobradium science fiction. Either way, PPG shots look like glowing dots flying at subsonic speeds. This is exactly what the "plasma torpedo" used by the Romulans in the "Balance of Terror" episode from the classic Star Trek looks like. Most of all, it looked like a luminous orange drop. And finally, a significant number of fans " star wars"(probably under the influence of Star Trek"), having decided to jump on the bandwagon of a departing train, they began to consider the green shots of turbolasers as plasma weapons. But what is a plasma weapon? For those who are not in the know: plasma is usually described as the fourth state of aggregation substances after solid, liquid and gaseous. Technically, it is an ionized gas, i.e. a gas in which the internal energy is so high that electrons are released from the electron shells of atoms. The Earth's ionosphere mainly consists of plasma, which can also be described as a "hot soup" of freely floating nuclei and electrons ( not quite right, see hot for detailsIwould; approx. translator). Thus, it is logical to assume that a plasma weapon should set fire to a target on direct contact. However, hitting a target with ion beams is generally referred to as "ion beam hitting" rather than "plasma weapon hitting". So what's the difference? The thing is that plasma weapons in science fiction are thermal weapons, i.e. the defeat occurs due to the internal energy of the hot plasma clot that hits the target, and not the forward kinetic energy of the ion flow. In fact, the so-called. The "plasma weapon" in science fiction fires normally visible "bolts" that move much, much slower than the particles of the plasma itself. For example, typical hand-held "plasma pistols" in science fiction fire a "bolt" that travels at 1 km/s at best (more often, the speed can be subsonic), but even in relatively "cold" plasma with an energy of 1 eV average speed(rms power) will be 13.8 km/s for nuclei and 593 km/s for electrons (assuming an equal distribution of energy in the volume). This circumstance is the main limitation on the effectiveness of "bolts" and their incomprehensible feature: how to justify the need for the existence of plasma weapons, where particles with chaotic movement and high speed are limited in the volume of slow "drops", and are not directed forward with the same vector and high speed, as it is will be in the particle stream? Such a weapon would have significantly less penetrating power, meaning it would be significantly less effective even if it could fire. And this weapon has, as a rule, one interesting feature: His shots are not affected by gravity. There is a nuance that is not taken into account; dense objects, such as bullets, fall under the influence of gravity, and light objects, such as Balloon, filled with helium, float under the influence of the buoyancy effect. You can't see the bullet drop because it's too small and fast to see with the naked eye, but the curvature of the trajectory is noticeable and significant, but not inherent in sci-fi "plasma weapons" whose projectiles always move in a straight line towards their targets in such a precise way. there is no gravity at all. It would be possible to justify such behavior by the density of the projectile, equal to the density of air, but if such a "bolt" has the density of air, then its properties resemble an ordinary balloon, which makes such a projectile, to put it mildly, ineffective. What will be the effectiveness of plasma weapons? In short: in any case, when the speed of reaching the target for the bolt will be no more than one thousandth of a second - simply none. You see, plasma expands very quickly, and although plasma guns do exist and are proposed as a mechanism to compensate for fuel burn-up in fusion tokamaks, they have never been seriously considered as a weapon. Yes, such weapons can fire "blobs" of plasma in the megajoule range, but even in a vacuum, the plasma won't stay in a clump long enough, let alone an atmosphere where it will move about as well as in a brick wall (seriously , the density of the atmosphere at sea level is a billion times greater than that of thermonuclear plasma). You can seriously increase the range of fire by accelerating ions to ultra-high (relativistic) speeds, but those "bolts" that we see in science fiction are unlikely to be able to move at such speeds. Okay, why not just lock up the plasma then? An obvious objection will be the thesis that in order to limit the plasma clot in space, you will have to create some kind of autonomous magical containment field that will move along with the bolt, without requiring any additional technical means for its existence. But in this case, the situation will only worsen. Let's say we're talking about a plasma "bolt" with a length of 1 meter, a diameter of half a centimeter and a power of 1 MJ (equivalent to about four ounces of TNT). Let's say that this is 1 keV of plasma (about 8 million K); You will need 6.24E21 ( E is a common spelling of the degree value, i.e. 6.24E21 should be read as "six point twenty-four hundredths times ten to the twenty-first power"; approx. translator) ions, i.e. less than 0.01 grams of hydrogen plasma. A small problem: the air will be many times denser, so such a plasma "bolt" will try to float due to the buoyancy effect and thus another propulsion system will be required to drive such bolts with their insignificant acceleration pulses through the atmosphere. Both of these problems can be solved by simply accelerating the particles (already at hypersonic speed, the projectile will have enough momentum to mitigate the effect of buoyancy and increase the effective range). But since this would again be the case in the case of a particle beam, and not the science fiction "moving blob of plasma weapons", this solution does not apply here. In short, a typical subsonic or slightly above the speed of sound in motion "bolt" of exploding plasma, typical of science fiction, would require an autonomous magical protective field , and will still float, even if the field allows you to keep the plasma. In general, ask yourself: how well would such a system work? Doesn't sound very impressive, does it? Try to imagine shooting steam from a gun - the steam quickly dissipates in the air. So why does replacing "steam" with "plasma" seem like a good idea when plasma is really just a hot gas? Is it possible to make plasma weapons work? Well, why not try to solve this problem with a much lower plasma energy while increasing the density? We could try to solve the buoyancy problem by making the bolt colder (say 1 eV, or 8000K, which is only slightly hotter than on the surface of the Sun), which would require a thousand times more ions in the same volume, but the density of such a shot would still be too small to push it through the atmosphere with little momentum. It won't necessarily float, but you can just throw a balloon at someone and see how well the object flies with the density of the atmosphere. No, if you want to push such a "bolt" through the atmosphere, it must either be significantly denser than air, or travel at extreme speeds that sci-fi weapons usually do not provide (and this, again, will turn such weapons into a beam accelerator, and not into the traditional "plasma weapon" from NF). So what if we reduce the volume to make it denser than a solid projectile? Well, this will let you forget about the problem of not being able to push the projectile through the atmosphere, but now you have the task of compressing it to such density with huge pressure. If we compress our megajoule plasmoid to a volume of one cubic centimeter and apply the ideal gas equation (great for plasma), we get pressures in the range of 700 gigapascals! If we calculate that this is a thousand times greater than the yield strength of high-quality steel, we can understand that we have a problem. So what are the problems with having a protective field a thousand times stronger than steel just to keep the plasma in the bunch? Some questions come from simple logic, like: if they can create such a strong containment field that somehow supports itself and doesn't need external projectors, then why can't they create personal shields of the same strength or even stronger? One might ask why the plasma does not glow like the Sun if it is hotter than the Sun's photosphere and denser than steel. And finally, one might ask why our plasma "bullet", which is denser than aluminum, does not act like a real bullet, that is, does not move along a ballistic trajectory and does not fall under the influence of gravity. While this may not be an obstacle for a hypothetical sci-fi weapon, it certainly doesn't fit with what we know from sci-fi, where there's no noticeable trajectory arc under gravity. In conclusion, I would like to say that the idea of ​​a slowly moving autonomous plasmoid as a striking element simply does not make any sense. Your "bolt" is constantly trying to blow itself up on its way to the target, you have to come up with some kind of absurdly strong but easy to build defensive field to keep it intact (thus giving rise to obvious questions why this super containment technology is not used, to effortlessly defend against such "bolts"), and when it finally reaches the target and the mythical "protective field" is destroyed, the ions contained in it immediately scatter in all directions, dissipating most of their energy into space without any harm to the target . Even those ions that hit the target will not be able to penetrate hard armor, but will only slightly heat it up, since the directions of their movement are chaotic and their kinetic energies are not co-directed. And after all this, the plasmoid will not move as it is shown in science fiction, but will go in an arc just like the shots from the automatic gun of the Russian BTR-80 in this video. Okay, what about plasma weapons in space? The problems associated with pushing an autonomous plasma drop through the atmosphere in space, for obvious reasons, are not so acute, but the problems of energy demand rise to their full height. The plasma weapons described in science fiction, as a rule, have a yield in the range of kilotons, megatons, and even higher. Such values ​​are necessary to compete with nuclear warheads, over which plasma weapons have a lot of technological disadvantages and only a few, often far-fetched, advantages. Consider a hypothetical plasma bunch with an output power of 1 megaton and an approximate volume of 1 million cubic meters (which is large for a plasma bunch and quite comparable to the volume of a small starship). If we assume that we are using a hydrogen plasma with an average particle energy of 100 keV (absurdly high temperatures- almost 800 million K), it will take 2.6E29 ions (about 215 kg) to get output power 1 Mt TNT (4.2E15 joules). Using the ideal gas equation would give a pressure in this huge volume of 1 million cubic meters a pressure of about 3 GPa, or more than three times the yield strength of stainless steel. In general, the problems of atmospheric plasma weapons are only partially mitigated in space. To use them effectively, a fantastically strong force field is needed to hold the bolt (a requirement that becomes increasingly difficult to meet with the increase in the power of plasma weapons), while there is still no answer why the enemy does not use a similar force field to prevent or deflect a blow, if such force fields can be created so easily that you can afford to use it for plasma clots and it will contain the plasma without any additional devices. You still face the problem of the random orientation of the particles in the plasma in relation to the direction of impact and the resulting poor penetrating properties, and if you are close to the surface of the planetoid, then the problem of the movement of the projectile along the ballistic arc. Once again, these problems can be almost completely solved using relativistic velocities, so that the expansion speed of the bunch will be much less than the relative speed of movement, but this has nothing to do with the "bolts" of plasma from science fiction. So why do science fiction writers use "plasma weapons"? Perhaps you should ask them yourself. I suspect they use it because it sounds cool, and also because they can't think of anything better (one of the paradoxes of the sci-fi world is that most modern authors have graduate-level scientific knowledge high school). And like it or not, that's enough for most SF writers these days. Although, if it were possible to invent such a field that would compress a plasma clot so much that it could fly through the air like a solid object, then why not use this fantastic technology to carry something more destructive, for example, a small charge of antimatter ? There is a rational way to use "plasma weapons" in science fiction, but in this case it will be a particle beam, not a "slowly moving discrete plasmoid". And what can the authors invent instead of plasma weapons? A lot, really. Guns, missiles, bombs, lasers, and particle beams (particularly on neutral particles, such as neutron guns, where the problem of electromagnetic repulsion will not cause additional beam expansion, and electromagnetic shielding will become ineffective), all this works fine and does not require any some fantastical irrational magical, self-propelled, self-powered fields that defy gravity and are a thousand times stronger than steel. However, all this is familiar to many science fiction authors, but despised by them. Some facts about plasma. Plasma on the surface of the Sun has a temperature of about 6000K. The temperature at the core of the Sun is approximately 15 million K. The temperature at the center of lightning exceeds 50 million K. Predicted temperatures in the core of a commercially viable fusion reactor are 100 million K. Steel melts at 1810K. The plasma glows primarily through bremsstrahlung. This is a process in which charged particles are scattered or deflected when interacting with an electric field. When particles lose kinetic energy, it is emitted in the form of a photon. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, synchrotron radiation and cyclotron processes ( Apparently talking aboutagnotobrakem, or cyclotronm, the radiation of an electron during its rotation in the magn. field; approx. translator) become significant, since charged particles move around magnetic field lines ( it is understood that we are talking about the influence of the Lorentz force, when a charged particle moves perpendicular to the magnetic field lines, twisting around the magnetic field line; approx. translator). Normal non-ionized matter glows with monochromatic radio emission, as a result of which only one allowed electronic transition from the excited to the ground state is possible; the difference is emitted as a photon ( in general, half-heartedly;more about plasma radiation; approx. translator). Particles in a plasma rarely interact due to the high speed of particle expansion and the small strength of the electromagnetic interaction. Without third-party intervention, the ions go into expansion, there is no talk of thermonuclear fusion. In fact, the distances of free expansion at a scattering angle of 90" in plasma are measured in tens of kilometers. Nevertheless, particles in plasma can interact en masse under conditions high pressures(for example, in stellar cores, where the pressure is so high that the plasma is compressed to a density greater than that of uranium). Plasma behavior is close to the behavior of ideal gases, therefore, its properties can be described through the ideal gas equations PV=NRT. You can try to remember the ideal gas equations taught at school in physics classes, but if not, it says that the product of the pressure and volume of a gaseous body is linearly correlated with its mass and temperature. Note that astrophysicists prefer the formula P=nkT, where n is the particle concentration and k is Boltzmann's constant. If the deuterium plasma reaches a sufficient density and temperature, thermonuclear fusion will begin. For example, the 3.51 GW STARFIRE2 reactor (a model with parameters necessary to achieve economic feasibility, not actual design characteristics) requires a plasma density of 1.69E20 deuterons per cubic meter with a total volume of 781 m3. The average temperature of the deuteron and electron is 24.1 keV and 17.3 keV respectively. In layman's terms, these are the average deuteron density and temperature of 2.695E-7 kg/m³ and 186 million K respectively. In other words, the STARFIRE plasmoid would only need to fill a thousand square foot volume of plasma at pressures in excess of 200 kPa. However, these requirements, no matter how unattainable they may seem, still exaggerate the real probability of synthesis, since they are based on a statement of high purity D-T plasma. The temperature for D-D synthesis is an order of magnitude higher, and the requirements for H-H synthesis exceed them by several orders of magnitude. Plasma torches with power output in the megawatt range exist in real life. However, their energy efficiency is limited by the density of the plasma and hence they are suitable for melting but not evaporation. solids. This is important for the concept of "hot fusion" proposed by Eastland and Gauf, with their use as a "fuel" of solid and gaseous materials. But in any case, the problem of dispersion remains unresolved. The nuclear reaction cross section of Coulomb scattering at 10 keV is 1E4 barn, while the reaction cross section for D-T fusion is about 1E2 barn, that is, a million times smaller than the scattering cross section. At D-D reactions synthesis, the energy level is lower by two orders of magnitude! In other words, the emission of a deuterium ion at 10 keV plasma, even without Coulomb scattering, is a hundred million times more likely than fusion with another deuterium ion. Nyashechka recommends watching, desu: Actually,

The term "new plasma weapon" in recent times increasingly exaggerated by various media. Information comes in conflicting. It is understandable: projects in various countries are only at the development stage. It is also indisputable that the most perfect weapon is the one about which the alleged enemy knows practically nothing, and then its use allows to achieve an even greater effect. What exactly is a plasma weapon? The answer to this question can only be given by its use (of course, if such a weapon exists) in a real combat situation. What is known about modern developments of plasma weapons in the world? This will be discussed further in the article.

The impact of plasma weapons on modern culture

In modern computer games The films and films attempt to present new types of weapons that humanity may face in future conflicts. One such attempt is the famous Fallout computer game. Plasma weapons, laser carbines, nuclear mini-charges - this is not the whole list of arsenal, which, according to the developers, awaits humanity in an alternative universe that has survived a nuclear war. How did modern developments of plasma weapons approach the ideas of science fiction writers and futurologists? How close are we to creating the means to destroy such a destructive force? In order to answer such questions, it is necessary to make an excursion into history, from the discovery and creation of plasma weapons to promising developments by scientists around the world.

The history of the emergence of plasma weapons

In 1923, American scientists Langmuir and Tonsk proposed to designate new form the existence of matter at 10,000 degrees, which they called plasma. The upper layer of the atmosphere (ionosphere) consists entirely of plasma.

Development of plasma weapons in the USSR

In the mid-1950s, a toroidal chamber with a magnetic coil was created in the USSR to study the problems of fusion physics. A prominent Soviet scientist Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa worked on the creation of a fundamentally new source of energy. In 1964, young Soviet scientists, among whom was Valentina Nikolaeva, created the Dream project, which implies the defeat ballistic missiles with plasma formations. When colliding with an object, the plasmoid must act like a uranium projectile, releasing colossal energy during the explosion.

As conceived by the inventors, a plasma weapon is a system consisting of a plasmoid (a means of destruction) and its launcher (a pulsed magnetic hydrodynamic (MHD) generator). The generator accelerates the plasma in a magnetic field to the speed of light and sets the direction of motion for it. Flight correction is made by laser.

The approximate time of creation is 1970. The main goal is the development of a pulsed magnetic hydrodynamic generator, with which it was possible to create plasmoids (or ball lightning) to destroy air targets of the alleged aggressor. In 1974, the DOR2 open resonator began operation, with the help of which controlled artificial ball lightning was created. Ionized gas or plasma is formed from neutral atoms and molecules and charged particles of ions and electrons. Mention may be made of the creation of the secret station "Surana", built near Nizhny Novgorod. Soviet scientist Avramenko achieved amazing results in the study of ionized clouds. Even attempts were made to use these developments in modern aircraft construction. In the dreams of aircraft builders - to surround the aircraft with plasma to reduce air resistance and increase speed dozens of times. Little is known about the prospects for such developments, for obvious reasons.

Ideas of plasma weapons in modern Russia

After the collapse of the USSR, funding for the development of Russian plasma weapons ceased, but this does not mean that Russian scientists have stopped further research. The work was carried out with sheer enthusiasm. New developments of Russian plasma weapons began against the backdrop of a deteriorating global political situation. Withdrawal of the United States from the ABM treaty and the strengthening of the NATO bloc in Russian borders spurred the country's leadership to revise its defense strategy. Recent statements by US President Donald Trump about the uncompromising rearmament of the US Army also do not help reduce tension in relations between Russia and the West.

In the fall of 2017, President V.V. Putin will consider the state arms program for 2018-2025. It mentions weapons based on "new physical principles". Most likely, in the near future, clarity will be made on the use of plasma weapons in modern society. If speak about the latest developments Russia - riddles and conjectures surround this topic. There are fragments of rumors about some project using a plasma shield capable of protecting the peaceful skies of Russia.

It is interesting to recall Boris Yeltsin's meeting with the Americans in Vancouver in 1993. The Russian side proposed to conduct joint tests of global anti-missile defense based on Russian plasma weapons near the Kwajalein Atoll. The inventor of plasma weapons, Rimily Avramenko, briefly mentioned the prospects for the commissioning of a model of this development. It would benefit not only the military: with its help it is possible to destroy space debris or clean up ozone holes. But, unfortunately, this project did not materialize.

Aspirations and hopes associated with plasma

Plasma opens up many prospects not only in the military sphere. The development of plasma generators allows you to transfer equipment to almost any fuel without compromising quality.

Development plasma technologies can give impetus to the further development of technological progress.

Development of plasma technologies in the USA

Plasma weapons are being developed all over the world, and the United States is no exception. A striking example can be considered in 1989, as part of the strategic defense initiative, the launch into space of a prototype beam weapon, which, as expected, could generate neutral hydrogen atoms and thereby shoot down Soviet missiles. The "success" of this weapon is evidenced by the fact that it is not in service, but in the Museum of Space in Washington. The HAARP active high-frequency ionosphere research station is also an attempt to study and create plasma weapons. Railguns advertised with pomp turned out to be another bluff. In 2016, there were occasional reports on the news feed about the U.S. military's attempts to test non-lethal plasma weapons. Thus, it is clear that modern developments of plasma weapons are carried out all over the world, funds are allocated for them, and the best minds of mankind are struggling to conquer plasma.

Description of the stated general principles of operation

O technical specifications plasma weapons can only be guessed due to the secrecy of information. If we talk about plasmoids, then this is plasma in a magnetic field created with the help of an MHD generator and having the speed of light in a directed motion. On the screens of popular TV shows, very interesting characteristics are sometimes mentioned: the possible dimensions, internal energy, and lifetime of the plasmoid.

According to some scientists, average temperature has risen on the earth, and at such a pace, the world can suffer catastrophes on a planetary scale, expressed in floods, droughts, hurricanes, shortages drinking water. Such changes may well be provoked by tests of plasma weapons. Its development in the military sphere makes it possible not only to intercept missiles, but also to psychotronically influence the masses of people and change the climate. The most powerful radar station HAARP is also credited with the ability to influence the weather. However, this is only speculation and conjecture, since no one has officially recognized the fact that they have such weapons.

Plasma Cloaks of Invisibility

In conditions modern combat the main bet is on the surprise of striking. But at the same time, unmasking inevitably occurs. Even Soviet scientists thought about this problem, proposing quite original way hiding equipment from electronic detection systems. The idea was to equip the planes with special plasma generators. Such aircraft, without burning up, could pass through the dense layers of the atmosphere, reaching the ground in a matter of seconds, just like ballistic missiles.

Plasma has another interesting property: it dampens electromagnetic pulses in all ranges. It seemed like the perfect camouflage had been found. The first tests were carried out on the MiG-29 fighter, but the results were unsatisfactory. The plasma interfered with the operation of on-board computers. As a result, it was decided to cover only the most vulnerable parts of the structure for radar. This technology has been applied to strategic bomber Tu-160.

Turkish Plasma Weapon

In 2013, the development of combat lasers for the Turkish navy was announced to the whole world. More than $50 million is allocated for the six-year project. Two models of combat lasers are announced. In 2015, they successfully passed laboratory tests: a target on a moving platform was hit. It was announced that the prospects for new weapons have no analogues in the world. This weapon is capable of stopping nuclear bomb. The population of Turkey itself could not resist sarcasm about the news boom, and both the military and the creators of the “miracle weapon” got it. One can only say with full confidence that the development of modern and promising types of weapons is carried out not only by superpowers with weighty "nuclear arguments".

Conclusion

Modern developments of plasma weapons and others latest types weapons with colossal destructive power do not answer the question of what the future will be like on planet Earth. Perhaps this research will open a Pandora's box. The prospects that open up in connection with the development of new technologies are fraught with many dangers for all mankind. The question is not whether plasma weapons, combat lasers and many other things that at first glance seem to be a figment of the imagination of science fiction writers will be created, but when this will happen. Developments recent years(the imposition of sanctions and the deterioration of the international situation) are the trigger mechanism for restarting cold war, which, in turn, is the most important factor in the emergence of even more destructive types of weapons.

In the meantime, the world is divided into skeptics and optimists. There are fierce disputes, which can only be resolved by the appearance or absence of weapons operating "on new physical principles" (for the defense industry). However, statements by high-ranking officials suggest that there is no smoke without fire, and many amazing discoveries await humanity in the future.

Before watching this movie, I thought that it was a plasma weapon, or pure fantasy of science fiction writers and computer game developers. Or, at best, a very distant future, that it will appear, somewhere, simultaneously with starships.

However, this is not so. And as far as I understand, all data on this type of weapon is strictly classified. And what seeps into open funds mass media, this is the tip of the iceberg, if not a broken phone at all. And there is a very good reason for this. The possession of such weapons by any country will make it an unambiguous and unconditional leader in the military sphere. How did the atomic bomb make the United States the leader. As far as I understand, our Shkval missile-torpedo is already one of the types of plasma weapons, the next ones are next in line. So the Russians, keep your fists, so that all this does not turn out to be another button accordion.

After watching the movie, by the way, I came across an article - "Forecast for the Development of Plasma Weapons" which is, so to speak. movie commentary. I think it will be of interest to many.

So, in the aforementioned program "Plasma Attack", among other things, it was told about the top-secret Soviet program to create anti-missile defense using plasma weapons.

In addition, the topic was again discussed about the imminent deployment of the so-called hypersonic strategic cruise missiles to the Russian army, which will use the plasma coating effect, which allows these objects to reach speeds of 4000-5000 m / s in the earth's atmosphere. Your obedient servant wrote about this in his publication "Once again about Putin's new weapon".

And there was also the thesis that Russian 5th generation fighters also plan to use the technology of plasma coating of the airframe, which will allow it to fly at hypersonic speeds and at the same time remain a super-maneuverable aircraft. That is, the new Russian fighter, which should make its first flight in 2009, will no longer even be 5-generation, 5+ generations.

And at the very beginning, the Host of the program showed an interesting trick - firing something similar to ball lightning from a small device that looked more like a children's cube, and called this device a "plasma blaster".

1. Although the technology of using plasmoids against blocks intercontinental missiles in fact, it turned out to be a dead end direction, which was already understood before the collapse of the USSR, and the United States, which is actively experimenting with the same direction at its Harp base, must still understand that effective anti-missile weapons will be created using plasma technologies.

The main mistake of the Soviet developers of missile defense on plasmoids was that they created plasmoids in ground installations using MHD generators, and then through an ionized atmospheric channel created using a laser beam, they tried to deliver them to a certain height along the course of the ballistic trajectory of an intercontinental warhead rockets. And they constantly lacked the power of this very ground installation.

Meanwhile, the warhead of an intercontinental missile, entering the dense layers of the atmosphere at speeds close to the first space speed, is itself enveloped in a plasma cloud. Therefore, in order to influence an intercontinental warhead with a plasma weapon - from a sharp change in the flight trajectory, by a sharp change in the speed of the warhead, to the destruction of this very warhead by creating completely different aerodynamic flight conditions, you just need to "pump up" the already existing plasma cloud around the intercontinental warhead that has entered the dense layers. warheads.

The aforementioned plasma cloud will be "pumped" by two ionized channels created by two powerful lasers operating in the ultraviolet radiation spectrum. This technology is described in my previous prediction Jules Verne's Last Unrealized Prediction.

And since the appearance of a plasma cloud around an intercontinental warhead flying towards the target is inevitable - due to its speed and properties earth's atmosphere, then plasma technologies will provide almost 100% reliable missile defense in this sector of missile weapons.

1. Although now hypersonic intercontinental cruise missiles positioned as a practically invulnerable weapon for the existing and future missile defense, in fact, they will be very vulnerable to missile defense using plasma technology. It's all about the same plasma coatings of hypersonic intercontinental missiles, allowing them to pick up crazy speeds and be super-maneuverable - "pumping" these same plasma coatings from the outside with the help of two ionized channels. punched in the atmosphere by ultraviolet lasers, will negate all these technological advantages and even threaten to destroy them.

1. Everything said in paragraph 2 is adequately consistent with the creation of weapons against 5+-generation fighters that will use the plasma coating of the airframe.

1. But the "plasma blaster", apparently, has already been created. And what's more, it's already gone. combat trials in real conditions.

The author of these lines is referring to a very incomprehensible story with the removal of the former "vice-president" of Ichkeria, Zelemkhan Yandarbiyev, in one of the states of the Persian Gulf in early 2004. Then Yandarbiev died as a result of the explosion of his jeep, in which he was. Security officers from the Russian embassy in that country were arrested in connection with this case. At the same time, the American intelligence services gave a tip on these employees. After severe interrogation (torture), the Russian security officers of the Russian embassy confessed and were sentenced to long terms imprisonment. But Russia used all its influence in order to get these employees to serve their sentences in Russian prisons, and when they were taken to Moscow on a plane specially sent for them, they were met like heroes with a crane carpet and, naturally, they did not go to any prisons , simply dissolving in the vastness of Russia.

What are such honors for, in general, failed agents? And why did the American intelligence services so brazenly and openly interfere in the activities of their partners in the "anti-terrorist coalition"?

Is it because the aforementioned agents conducted combat tests of the "plasma blaster" - firing from it from a certain distance into the gas tank of Yandarbiev's jeep, eliminating the "spiritual father" of the terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka, which took place at the end of October 2002? And, most importantly, these agents did not allow the top-secret "plasma blaster" to fall into the hands of the American special services, claiming for the investigation that Yandarbiev was eliminated with the help of a trivial explosive device, leaving our "partners" in the "anti-terrorist coalition" "with a nose"?

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Other names: plasma gun, plasma gun, plasma, plasma gun, plasma blaster.

If we talk about domestic developments in the field of plasma weapons, then all of them were completely directed towards the development of air defense and space defense systems. In particular, in projects proposed by the Soviet, and then Russian designers, it was supposed to destroy missiles and aircraft with the help of large plasmoids, aimed at the target using a control laser beam. The enemy aircraft fell into a plasma cocoon, lost contact with the air, and, consequently, lost all the aerodynamic properties inherent in its design. As a result, the missiles had to go off a given trajectory, and the planes would fall into an uncontrolled tailspin. According to engineers, all this inevitably led to extreme loads, as a result of which rocket and aircraft equipment was destroyed.

American developers of plasma weapons took a completely different path. They focused their attention on the impact on the Earth's ionosphere, which, as you know, also consists of plasma. Perhaps at first the Yankees planned to create a kind of plasma shield that could cover America, thereby protecting it from a missile attack, but as a result of the experiments, it turned out that the prospects for the program are much more promising. This is how the HAARP program was born, which is nothing more than an effective climate weapon. At the moment, the Americans have already launched three installations. These are facilities in Alaska (the military base of Gakhon, located 400 km from Anchorage), in Norway (the town of Tromso) and in Greenland. All these machines are safely ruining our planet, but their owners try not to notice it. Naturally, because the possession of such weapons - Right way to world domination.

Another example of a real-life plasma weapon is the railgun. As I already noted in the article on this combat system, the installation allows you to throw out plasma clots with a truly fantastic speed of 50 km / s. However, railgun designers consider this property only as a side effect and focus on overclocking traditional ammunition.
Having not found any serious materials related to the development of a full-fledged combat plasma launcher, it remains for me to state that such projects do not currently exist. Most likely, the game is not worth the candle. This becomes clear as soon as you start to study the issue in more detail and focus on the problems of the combat plasma system.

Disadvantages of a plasma gun:
1. Short sighting range. The plasma clot, which maintains its integrity due to its own electromagnetic field, is subject to many external influences, and therefore is not stable on the flight path. In addition, it should be taken into account here that due to the huge energy losses, the lifetime of the plasmoid itself is also very short.
2. Low penetration. This lack of weapons is due to the very low density of the plasmoid. As for the many thousandth temperature to which the plasma is heated, then, given its very brief effect on the target, the energy may not be enough to melt modern composite armor. Moreover, it is not enough to destroy various kinds of fortifications.
3. High energy consumption of weapons. The energy in the plasma gun is spent on the creation of the plasma itself, its retention and further acceleration. Naturally, these are gigantic costs that modern power sources are simply not able to provide. And nuclear batteries, so beloved by the creators of many computer games, have not yet been invented, alas.
4. The complexity and explosiveness of the design. One of the main characteristics of the weapon is its rate of fire. In order to ensure a high rate of fire of the plasma launcher, it is necessary to develop a mechanism in which a pulsating accelerating EM field from a steadily burning "plasma wick" will rip off and send individual bunches into the barrel. Of course, to implement this project in a compact small arms will be incredibly difficult. In addition, the slightest malfunction in the operation of a delicate mechanism can lead not only to a failure of the system, but also to its explosion.

From all of the above, a completely logical and obvious conclusion follows: the efforts and costs required to create a combat plasma launcher will be huge, but the resulting weapon may, in terms of efficiency, be no higher than a conventional firearm. So, most likely, the plasma gun will remain a spectacular special effect from the movie "Predator" and the fantastic shooters "Doom". True, there is a possibility that hand-held plasma weapons may take a completely different path of development. According to what exactly I tried to present in my novel "Marauders". There, some of my heroes have to wield the Hunter-3 heavy assault plasma gun. This weapon works on the principle of a plasma cord and allows you to incinerate everything and everyone at short and medium distances. Another attempt to use weapon plasma was made by me in the cycle "Battle in the Dark". There for firing from the ordinary firearms French legionnaires use new plasma cartridges. After being fired with such cartridges, the bullets are dressed in plasma shirts. Plasma practically reduces the resistance of the atmosphere to zero, increases the energy capacity of the ammunition. From this follows both the increased speed of the bullet, and its remarkable destructive power.

Oleg Shovkunenko

Reviews and comments:

Leo 02.08.14
Cool article, I read it with interest, thanks. Only there is a question, that cord that you mentioned at the end of the article, is it like a permanent beam? Theoretically, this can be created, a continuous plasma beam?

Oleg Shovkunenko
Leo, for example, an electric arc - this is a kind of the same plasma cord that I spoke about. And what you can do with this thing, more than a hundred years ago, Nikola Tesla clearly showed.

Alexander 06/20/15
Hello. In addition to electric arcs, in terms of plasma cords, it is worth mentioning such a simple and traditional thing as a flamethrower (fire pouring from which is also plasma) and the transmission of electricity through an ionized / plasma channel. But I would like to talk about plasma cartridges separately. At one time, one of the criteria for switching from an intermediate cartridge of 7.62 to 5.45 was excess hit force: where the old cartridge simply pierced a person through and through, the new one tied / flattened, transferring more energy to large area and causing noticeably more damage and impact. The increased speed of the shot does not mean greater destructive power, rather, on the contrary, even if it increases the armor-piercing of the projectile. But it will be possible to shoot down low-flying aircraft from Kalash, yes. If I'm wrong somewhere, please correct me. Thanks for the great article.

Oleg Shovkunenko
Alexander, you are right that plasma, as a damaging factor, is present in many types of weapons: a flamethrower is a plasma, HEAT projectile- plasma, thermobaric charge - also plasma.
Now for the ammo. The transition from the “seven” to the “five” did not occur at all due to the excess strength of the cartridge. The main reason that won the hearts of all generals was the reduction in the weight of ammunition. Consequently, a soldier can carry more of them, therefore, he is able to fight longer. There are no other outstanding advantages of the "five" over the "seven", so soldiers in military conflict zones always strive to get weapons with a large caliber (read the reviews for my article AKS-74u, it was just about this conversation).
As for the stopping factor, it is most often required in police operations, but in combat, the main thing is to get the enemy at any cost, wherever he tries to hide. Just a job for a plasma bullet. Well, as for the defeat of any technique, you yourself wrote everything perfectly.

Jabberwacky 04.09.15
Here is another direction for a flight of fantasy about plasma guns offhand :)
Plasma crystals. Powerful "chamomile" folded electron currents in the plasma bunch form in the center of it a high density of negative charge, which attracts ions from the surrounding gases, which form the conditions for the emergence of a multinuclear TNR in the same center. Capable of self-support! Ball lightning.

Grover 12/26/15
It's all real. Fairy tales are not needed. An example of this is various kinds of fireballs: white, blue, black AND TRANSPARENT. Observation of these objects and their artificial generation is not such a complicated process. And acceleration and direction along a certain trajectory, and even more so. So, if this method and method of energy impact on third-party objects is NOT POSSIBLE - from the position of the current off. science is bullshit. This has been real ever since - as this method was tested by Nikola Tesla - Oh - Oh - Oh - a very long time ago - the Tunguska meteorite. So, practitioners, for you, here is a VERY huge field of activity and there lies the solution to the problem of generating ALMOST free energy.

Oleg Shovkunenko
Well, Tesla's involvement in the events on Tunguska has not yet been proven ... although it is quite probable. And yet, I remain of my opinion, the use of plasmoids as striking elements of light weapons is ineffective. Another thing is large strategic systems such as the "Tunguska meteorite"! But about the receipt and transmission of energy, you are categorically right. Tesla is clearly on to something here. The only question is, where did the results of his work go?

Alexander K. 05.07.16
A "flamethrower" is far from being a plasma weapon, at least for the reason that the operation of a flamethrower is based on the oxidation of one or another type of fuel in an oxygen or air environment, and there it is still very far from the ionization process, and therefore to the formation of plasma as such. And as for N. Tesla, there are much more “legends” and “myths” than with the “UFO” (this also applies to the Tunguska meteorite).

Oleg Shovkunenko
Alexander, you are right, it is difficult to call a flamethrower a 100% plasma weapon. But still, any flame contains a certain amount of low-temperature plasma. And by the way, it can occur even with partial ionization of the gas.

Dmitry 25.07.16
I read your articles here, it's interesting, I agree with a lot. Regarding plasma weapons, the question is very interesting .. There is such a thing as an ionizer, an ion engine, etc. ... so here's the idea: ions, these are electrical particles ... if you ionize something, then it will be to shock. And what if this "warehouse" of particles is blown up (with a negative or positive charge)? And the outgoing stream of hot plasma (several thousand degrees) will be that "projectile"? Only the return will be crazy ... but on close range it will be like in the movie "Predator" ...

Oleg Shovkunenko
Dmitry, a method for obtaining plasma with modern technologies It's not a problem. The question is in accordance with the cost of such weapons and their effectiveness. I already wrote about it. You can shoot from a terribly energy-intensive and expensive plasma gun and kill your opponent, or you can use a penny cartridge with almost the same result (although the process itself will not look so impressive). Which option do you think the generals will choose? But a plasma bomb that will melt everything around for hundreds of meters should be of much more interest to them.

Dasha 15.03.17
All weapons (plasma, laser, booster) are very vulnerable and have LOW RELIABILITY! All these expensive and terrible tsatskas can be put out of action by a good electromagnetic impulse! And you don't even need a plasma bomb! Just a powerful impulse and all warriors can only use their PLASMOMERS and laser guns as clubs! You can, guys, continue to express your fantasies, but let's think about other technologies! And they IS! And based on these technologies, you can create something more impressive! (I do not want to give hints, you are still reasonable here and will come to this yourself).

Pavel Menshikov 01.02.19
The problem lies in the source of power for plasma weapons, even the so-called nuclear battery is unable to provide such an amount of energy, a powerful nuclear generator the size of a room is needed for only one shot. In the distant future, compact powerful energy sources may appear, but in general it will be possible to install plasma weapons on ships and even tanks, but hand-held plasma weapons: blasters, plasma guns are unlikely to ever appear. With a laser it is much easier, it is possible to transmit along a polarized beam, although a powerful source of energy is also required.