Chapter 116 115: Laser Cannon
Li Qingsong had now mastered Electromagnetic Cannon technology. But an Electromagnetic Cannon used for interception and one used for offense were two different things.
Offensive Electromagnetic Cannons prioritized destructive power, meaning their projectiles had to be as large and as fast as possible. While a higher rate of fire was certainly better, it wasn't the top priority.
The requirements for a defensive Electromagnetic Cannon, on the other hand, were the opposite: the projectile needed to be as small as possible. The goal was simply to knock an incoming Electromagnetic Cannon Projectile off its trajectory by as little as a single centimeter. Over a long enough distance, even this tiny deviation would grow exponentially, causing the projectile to miss the warship entirely. This didn't require much kinetic energy, so what was the point of making the defensive projectiles so large?
In fact, their smaller size meant more of them could be carried.
The muzzle velocity requirement wasn't particularly high, either. There was no need to achieve speeds of over ten kilometers per second.
A few kilometers per second, or even less than one kilometer per second, was perfectly acceptable.
Since its role was interception, all that mattered was calculating the trajectory in advance. Even a lower-velocity projectile could strike a high-speed one with proper timing.
Defensive Electromagnetic Cannons had low requirements for projectile mass and muzzle velocity, but an extremely high requirement for their rate of fire.
In extreme cases, a defensive Electromagnetic Cannon had to be capable of firing hundreds or even thousands of projectiles in a single second. After all, on a battlefield in space, who could possibly know how many projectiles would be heading their way at any given moment?
Following this design philosophy, Li Qingsong made numerous improvements to the original Electromagnetic Cannon. He ultimately created a small-scale model with a barrel only two meters long and ten centimeters in diameter. Its maximum muzzle velocity was a mere two kilometers per second—a speed that couldn't even match some high-velocity bullets from Gunpowder Guns.
The projectiles fired by this Electromagnetic Cannon were infinitesimally small. The lightest version had a mass of only about two milligrams, roughly the weight of the tiny steel ball at the tip of a ballpoint pen refill.
Even with a muzzle velocity of 2,000 meters per second, its kinetic energy was only a few paltry joules. But that didn't matter. As long as it could shift the target projectile's trajectory by a single centimeter, it was enough.
Their extremely low mass meant a single Warship could carry a vast quantity of them. After all, a full 500,000 of these projectiles weighed only one kilogram in total.
With the development of several models of defensive Electromagnetic Cannons complete, Li Qingsong turned his attention to Laser Cannons.
Compared to solid projectiles, Lasers possessed an unparalleled advantage: speed.
The fastest Electromagnetic Cannon projectile traveled at just over ten kilometers per second. A Laser, however, moved at the speed of light—a difference of more than twenty-thousand-fold.
Defensive Laser Cannons were better suited for dealing with projectiles that had already closed to a short range and would soon impact if not intercepted.
At the same time, Li Qingsong also planned to develop both offensive and defensive models for this type of weapon.
It would be a terrible waste not to use such a potent offensive tool to attack enemy warships.
A high-energy laser beam could destroy a target's armor and hull not just through traditional thermal scorching, but also by rapidly heating the target to induce a shockwave effect, causing even greater damage.
Furthermore, the rapid heating could destroy the material's integrity. The extreme cycle of high-temperature expansion and low-temperature contraction would cause the material to spall, compromising the entire structure.
Lasers have a very long history of application and were used on a large scale even in the early days of the Human World, but their use in weaponry was relatively rare.
The primary reason was the immense technical difficulty involved.
A weapons-grade Laser Cannon required not only an extremely high-power laser generator but also an immense instantaneous power draw. This placed enormous strain on the power supply system—even more so than an Electromagnetic Cannon.
It also placed extremely high demands on the cooling system, which was a fundamental difference from the Electromagnetic Cannon.
Without a sufficiently powerful cooling system, the laser generator could melt itself in under a second.
Then there was another crucial factor: the laser's divergence angle.
For the weapon to be practical in combat, Li Qingsong had to create a Laser with an extremely low divergence angle.
Only with a low enough divergence angle would the laser beam remain focused.
For example, if a laser beam had a cross-sectional area of one when fired, and that area doubled to two after traveling one kilometer, the energy per unit area would be halved, drastically reducing its destructive power.
So, decades ago, Li Qingsong had adopted a brute-force approach. He had poured in brainpower and resources, developing the technology regardless of cost. Through day after day of iterative optimization, he had finally, after all these years, developed a Laser Cannon with practical combat applications.
As per his original plan, Li Qingsong's Laser Cannons were developed in two major series: one for defense and one for offense.
Each series was then subdivided into numerous models based on factors like the Laser's power and wavelength.
Now, Li Qingsong initiated an experiment with a high-energy offensive Laser Cannon.
One thousand kilometers above Ganymede, a decommissioned Mercury-class Warship drifted silently.
Though decommissioned and technologically obsolete, its armor was still made of relatively advanced materials and was extremely thick.
It could withstand sustained fire from a high-rate-of-fire machine gun without being penetrated.
But now, from a thousand kilometers away, a laser beam fired from the surface of Ganymede struck its armor.
The laser beam's initial cross-section was only about three square centimeters. After traveling a thousand kilometers, its cross-sectional area had merely doubled to six square centimeters.
Although the area had doubled, halving the energy per unit area, its initial power was so immense that it still possessed incredible destructive force.
Under the laser's glare, the metal of the warship's armor began to boil and explode within seconds. After another ten-odd seconds, the surrounding armor plating was also severely affected by the damage, its performance degrading sharply and its protective capabilities plummeting.
After thirty seconds, the thick armor was burned straight through. A massive amount of gas vented from the interior, and the entire warship lost power from the penetrating hit.
After a comprehensive assessment, Li Qingsong reached a conclusion.
'A ship-mounted, combat-ready Laser Cannon can't achieve this level of power. All things considered, the largest ship-mounted Laser Cannon can probably maintain a degree of lethality within a range of about three thousand kilometers. Beyond that, it'll be useless.
Very good. Not bad at all. Three thousand kilometers is enough.'
Even if it weren't, there was nothing to be done. This was the absolute limit of Li Qingsong's current technology; he couldn't push it any further.
Having completed the test of the offensive Laser Cannon, Li Qingsong shifted his attention to the defensive version.