Ran this scenario through ChatGPT and this is what it came up with:Question: There have been experiments with unmanned aerial vehicles being equipped with photo-receptors and ground-based lasers being used to target the receptors to power the UAV. What would happen if a ground-based laser designed as a counter-UAV weapon were to fire at a UAV equipped with such photo-receptors? Would the laser provide additional power to the UAV or would it damage it?Short answer:
almost certainly damage, not extra power.Hereās why, step by step.1. How laser power-beaming to UAVs actually worksExperiments that power UAVs with lasers are
very carefully engineered systems:
Matched wavelength: The laser wavelength is chosen to match the peak efficiency of the UAVās photovoltaic (PV) receivers.
Controlled power density: The beam intensity is kept below damage thresholds.
Large spot size: The beam is deliberately spread out so heat doesnāt build up.
Stable tracking: Precise pointing avoids hot spots.
Specialized receivers: The UAV uses laser-optimized PV cells with cooling, current limiting, and sometimes shutters.
Even with all that, conversion efficiency is low (often
10ā30%), and thermal management is a major challenge.
2. What counter-UAV lasers are designed to do
A ground-based counter-UAV laser is designed with
the opposite goals:
- High irradiance (power per area)
- Tight focus
- Rapid heating
- Structural or electronic damage, not energy transfer
These lasers aim to:
- Melt surfaces
- Burn wiring
- Delaminate composites
- Blind sensors
- Cause thermal runaway in electronics
3. What happens if such a laser hits laser-power receptors?
A. Power mismatch (the biggest issue)
Weapon lasers deliver
orders of magnitude more power density than PV receivers can tolerate.
- PV cells saturate quickly
- Excess energy becomes heat
- Heat causes:
- Cell efficiency collapse
- Junction damage
- Cracking or delamination
- Permanent failure
Instead of ācharging faster,ā the receiver
overheats and dies.
B. Wavelength mismatch
Most counter-UAV lasers use wavelengths like:
- ~1 Āµm (fiber lasers)
- ~1.06 Āµm (Nd:YAG)
Laser-power PV systems are tuned narrowly. If the wavelength is off:
- Efficiency drops sharply
- Absorbed energy turns almost entirely into heat
- Damage happens even faster
C. Beam quality and speckle
Weapon lasers are highly coherent and tightly focused, causing:
- Speckle patterns
- Local hot spots
- Uneven heating
PV cells hate this. Localized hotspots can destroy a cell even if average power seems āacceptable.ā
D. No protective throttling
A power-beaming UAV might have:
- Optical diffusers
- Active shutters
- Power regulation
But those are designed for
known, cooperative beams, not a hostile, overpowered one. Reaction times are usually too slow to prevent damage.
4. Could it ever help the UAV?
In theory,
only if all of these were true at once:
- The weapon laser happened to match the receiverās wavelength
- Power density stayed below damage thresholds
- The beam was defocused
- The UAV had robust protection and cooling
That combination is so unlikely that in practice itās a
non-scenario.
5. Bottom line
A counter-UAV laser firing at a laser-powered UAV would:
Not meaningfully increase its power
Rapidly overheat and damage the photo-receptors- Likely disable or destroy the UAV
A laser designed to
kill drones is fundamentally incompatible with one designed to
feed them energy.
TLDR - No. Firing a C-UAV laser at a UAV equipped with photoreceptors designed to be powered by lasers will NOT provide power. They will still be damaged/destroyed by the C-UAV laser
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