Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 15, 1981)

Dais guests at the ASNE Long Beach-Greater Los Angeles Section meeting were, left to right: Capt. Richard Thomas, USN; Lt. Richard D. Hepburn, USN; Mrs.

Debbie Hepburn; Mrs. Sally Skolnick; Capt. J.A. Gildea, USN, section chairman;

Capt. Alfred Skolnick, USN, speaker; John E. Marriner; Craig Smith; Phil Finkel- stein; Mrs. Verna Finkelstein.

Report On Laser Technology Made To

ASNE Long-Beach-Greater L.A. Section

The first meeting of the 1981- 82 year for the Long Beach-

Greater Los Angeles Section of

ASNE was held recently at the

Los Alamitos Armed Forces Re- serve Center Officers Club. Fol- lowing dinner, Capt. J.A. Gildea,

USN, chairman, welcomed the 57 members and guests.

Chairman Gildea next intro- duced the speaker for the eve- ning, Capt. Alfred Skolnick, USN, whose topic was "Laser Devel- opment and Application to the

U.S. Navy." Captain Skolnick is project manager of High Energy

Lasers, P.M. 22, of the Naval Sea

Systems Command.

Captain Skolniek's presentation covered the Navy's application of high-energy lasers. He reviewed the laser research and develop- ment programs of all of the branches of the military with a look at the manning effort and costs of each, rating the Air

Force, Navy and Army in that order.

He interspersed his talk with color slides of some of the devel- opmental work done at TRW's

Mission Viejo facility and cited the lasers' ability to shoot down a towed missile that was only 6 inches in diameter and 6 feet long. He explained that the fo- cused energy of the laser beam melted the outer dome cap of the missile and the molten metal shorted out the fuse, thus ex- ploding the missile. He said that there is currently under devel- opment a laser which uses a chemical reaction to create a high-energy pulse that can be focused on a target by means of mirrors. Since the laser is used to burn or melt the metal of the target vehicle, the power of the laser beam must be increased as the thickness of the metal it is to attack increases.

On ships or other vehicles hav- ing plating in excess of half an inch, present lasers would merely burn off the paint and do little or no damage to the metal. Also, he pointed out, laser beams are attenuated by atmospheric condi- tions such as fog, rain, and clouds and thus have rather severe limi- tations in low altitude combat applications. However, he noted, laser beams in outer space or in upper atmosphere can be very effective since vacuum is very beneficial to laser beam range and intensity.

While much of the laser devel- opment is highly classified, Cap- tain Skolnick said that the Rus- sians are spending tremendous amounts of resources in research and development of the subject.

The U.S. Navy is currently build- ing a test facility at White Sands

Proving Grounds, New Mexico, to

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Mrs. Sally Skolnick, representing ASNE

National Headquarters, speaking to the

September 17, 1981 meeting of the

Long Beach-Greater Los Angeles Section of ASNE. further research and develop laser techniques and applications.

Captain Skolniek's presentation of the unclassified elements of a very sophisticated area of cur- rent technology held the atten- tion of the audience for almost an hour, and he further enlight- ened them in the ensuing ques- tion and answer session which followed.

Award $7-Million Overhaul

Contract For USS St. Louis

To Triple A. South

Triple A. South, San Diego,

Calif., has been awarded a $7,- 000,000 formerly advertised firm- fixed price contract for the reg- ularly scheduled overhaul of the

USS St. Louis (LKA-116). Work will be performed in San Diego.

The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity. (N62- 791-74-C-0030)

Krupp Atlas Names Bligh

East Coast Regional Mgr.

Paul H. Bligh

It has been announced by Krupp

Atlas Elektronik that Paul H.

Bligh will be their new East

Coast regional manager, head- quartered in Jersey City, N.J.

His duties will include coordi- nating all dealer activities as well as direct sales for all the Atlas products.

Most recently Mr. Bligh was employed by Racal-Decca in Flor- ida in several operations and sales positions. His most recent posi- tion for Racal was the sales ad- ministration manager. 58 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News