Underwater laser weaponry

[RF]

Back in the 1970's the Gerry Anderson series ''UFO'' - recently rerun on the ITV4 television channel - featured an episode entitled ''Subsmash'' in which an alien submarine craft used an underwater white laser or heat ray to strike the underside of a merchant ship and sink it. Later in this episode this ray was also used against a submerged submarine that was looking for the alien sub.

Is such depiction of a underwater laser science fantasy, science fiction - or can it be done for real?

[lwd]

I don't think we have any lasers now that could sink a ship in particular hole a sub very quickly. There are wavelengths where water is transparent. I'm not sure if we have anything that lases at them however. My feel is SF but possible on the science rather than fantasy side of things.

[RF]

lwd,

I asked because we are now a few years on from when President Reagan initiated the Strategic Defence Initiative and was wondering whether an underwater laser had been developed, rather just as a space weapon.

[Bgile]

I don't know very much about lasers, but visible light doesn't penetrate water very well, and I suspect an underwater laser weapon would be more difficult to make than one that will work satisfactorily in air.

I do know that moisture in the air is a fairly serious problem for lasers.

[lwd]

Currently lasers are only effective vs thin skinned or heat sensative objects. I think I've seen referances to lasers (Blue Green lasers perhaps) that are at frequencies where water is fairly transparent. To date I don't think they are very high energy devices. Turbitty would also be a problem with an underwater device.

[Karl Heidenreich]

Hi RF:


Funny you bring forward the UFO series: one of my favorites. Gerry Anderson was the one guy who made a lot for Sci Fi in England in the sixties and seventies with series as: Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlett (all these were puppets), UFO (mainstream TV series) and Space 1999. At 1971 I remember to saw the first season in my dad´s black and white General Electric TV set (the same in which I saw the Apolo 11 land at the moon). Two years ago I bought the 26 episodes of UFO, incredible and nostalgic stuff!
The best was the main theme (soundtrack) by Barry Gray.
The weapon systems displayed were quite cool:

1. The three lunar interceptors being coordinated by the cool girls with purple wigs.
2. The Sky Diver submarine that launched a fighter plane.
3. The Land mobile units.

And of course, SHADO (Supreme Headquaters Alien Defense Organization) which runs the whole show against the blood soacked aliens.
There is a link to this TV series:

http://ufoseries.com/

As everything British it is super cool. Very good for you to bring it forward, really, great.

Best regards

[RF]

Hi RF:
:clap:

Funny you bring forward the UFO series: one of my favorites.

Best regards

Mine too.

I wonder what would have happened if the Kriegsmarine had got its hands on that underwater UFO - it could have won the Battle of the Atlantic single-handed.

Coming back to the UFO series I don't believe it was ever completed. We never found out where the aliens came from, how the UFO's (which were hardly bigger than an estate car) could travel faster than the speed of light and why some of the aliens tactics were so nieve and ineffective.

There were a lot of other unaswered questions - such as how did Sky 1 manage to re-dock to its parent submarine, how was Moonbase kept supplied with those large interceptor missiles, indeed how were the interceptors brought to and maintained on the Moon.

Today the technology used seems very outdated - no lock on radars, the aliens using sub-machine guns etc. in comparison Captain Scarlet which featured Cloudbase seemed to be in front of UFO.

One other thing - how do you think politicians like Jimmy Carter or George Bush would cope if UFO was to become the real thing?

[RF]

And of course there was Ed Bishop, who recently passed away.

[Karl Heidenreich]

RF:



Incredible! I believe that almost everyone have forgotten the beloved UFO series.
Yeah, Ed Bishop who died the same week in which his co-star Mike Billington (who played a russian hitman at 007´s the Spy Who Loved Me), was a very good actor for his part as Colonel Straker.

Answering your questions:

1. If the Kriegmarine would have put it´s hands on the UFO then maybe they could have won if Marshall would have been apointed to exploit this.

2. The series filmed only two 13 episodes seasons. The third was canceled because the US ratings were very low. The new and spectacular sets and FX for the third season were used for Space 1999.

3. The way the Sky 1 and the sub redock is still an unanswered mistery. But it was very funny the way it was launched.

4. About the moon supply systems there were a quite uggly "space shuttle" thar was launched from a giant VSTOL airplane. This shuttle keep the moon base supplied of... everything including purple wigs...

5. The technology was, indeed, outdated as we see it today.

6. The cool thing about those UFOs was the funny noise they made while flying around.

7. The alien tactics were naive and disastrous. Maybe the alien general was Colin Powell or Robert McNamara, who knows?

8. If Carter was the one he would have surrendered in order to avoid a fight. If Bush was the one then he would have invaded Irak because Hussein was hiding an alien secret base.

Best regards...

[lwd]

This topic was at least initially about naval technology. The last few posts seam to have wandered completely off any pretense of that.

In the mean time Karl makes it even worse with his unwarented and off base political put downs. IE:

RF:
....
7. The alien tactics were naive and disastrous. Maybe the alien general was Colin Powell or Robert McNamara, who knows?

8. If Carter was the one he would have surrendered in order to avoid a fight. If Bush was the one then he would have invaded Irak because Hussein was hiding an alien secret base.

...

[Karl Heidenreich]

lwd:

This topic was at least initially about naval technology. The last few posts seam to have wandered completely off any pretense of that.

In the mean time Karl makes it even worse with his unwarented and off base political put downs. IE:

Sorry but UFO was a very cool series and I was asked about my opinion and I gave it. Maybe we could be enlightned about the superb strategic capabilities of Powel or McNamara, or the fighting will of Carter or Bush´s superb way to wage war and not wining after 4K US Army deaths + 5 years of conflict against understrenght mujajedin guerrillas...

[lwd]

You really don't understand the meaning of "off topic" do you. PLS take it elsewhere.

[Karl Heidenreich]

lwd:

RF bring forth a topic which it amuzes me because it´s about an almost forgotten TV show which was quite good and cool. Maybe you dislike it because it is a British series and not a US one.

It´s "off topic"? OK: it is. But I don´t believe that you´ll lose sleep because of it. It seems funny that you believe you OWN this website and that:
1. People MUST like what you want WHEN you want it.
2. People´s ideas, tastes and criteria MUST be like yours and if not then you attack them.
3. If something is not the way you want so don´t read it, period: that´s why freedom is all about.

After all you ain´t the web master nor moderator so I don´t accept you come forward to tell us what to say and when to say it.

Let´s us discuss the TV show and if we hace to move to "off topic" then we will...

Kind regards.

[lwd]

Not at all. While discussing the TV show is rather off topic for this forum it is not for the thread so I didn't complain about it. When you start bringing your totally off topic political opinions in then I complained.

[Ramius]

Funsucker, you dont have to look at the topic if it doesn't have a discussion you like.