From: aufsj@IMAP2.ASU.EDU
Subject: Re: #1. Possible EW apps for Plasma Mirrors ???
Organization: Arizona State University
Newsgroups: sci.physics.electromag,sci.physics.plasma

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: [.....] description of "plasma mirror" deleted.

: > Well, what part of the big picture am I missing? It seems that
: > at least some doppler spoofing should be attainable, yet I haven't heard
: > of it being done. I'm certain I'll hear why soon..... :-)

: Energy to run it for one thing. A plasma is ionized gas, it takes an
: eV (electron Volt) or so to ionize most atoms, and when you want to keep
: things ionized it adds up to lots of electrons and lots of volts: volts
: times current is power. So you need a big power plant. Putting this on
: a missle ain't gonna happen.

Hmmmm. The numbers don't seem that wild to me. For one thing, in
the context of 'covering' the front view of a typical missile you
wouldn't need a very large field, and if you only wanted to use it to
throw off a fire-control radar in the terminal phase you would only need
the thing energized for minutes, if even that. Likewise, for another
possible use---throwing off the doppler proximity fuses of missiles fired
at you---you would only need to activate the thing for tens of seconds
while the warhead is within a danger proximity (if that long). I'd have
to do some math, but that sounds doable at least.

:A nuclear powered ship is another story,
: power is certainly available. But phased array radar can do the same thing,
: with no moving parts, no special gas tubes, and much less power consumption.

Can it? I didn't think it was very easy for a 'normal' phased
array radar to A)detect an incoming radar pulse B)set and emit a
frequency shifted version of the pulse in real time (typically under 1
microsecond) C)do this over a wide frequency range. SPY-1, for example,
has a very limited frequency range and is useless for most EW
applications. I don't think it is accurate to say that current radars can
perform this function in a realistic environment. But maybe I'm wrong.

regards,

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Steven j Forsberg at aufsj@imap2.asu.edu Wizard 87-01