When we think about the submarines and their danger to satellites, the Chinese claim that they equip their submarines with laser weapons. The question is: which weapon system the Chinese will use when they want to harm satellites? Did they mention lasers? Or, did they just mention Anti-satellite, ASAT? The submarine can launch ASAT missiles.
Maybe the submarine cannot destroy satellites from the sea, directly by using lasers, but the fact is that nuclear reactors give very much power.
And that can make them good platforms for some kind of tactical systems. Those tactical systems can cut holes into the ship's body and destroy things like low-flying aircraft and drones. Maybe, the laser weapon's power will not be enough to destroy satellites in orbiters, submarines can harm satellites.
Submarines can use ASAT weapons, like anti-satellite missiles, as I wrote before. The antisatellite missile can use chemical lasers or some other direct energy weapon to destroy the target. Single-use solid-state chemical lasers that use things like flashlight powder as an energy source can harm satellites.
The system can use maser technology base EMP to destroy the satellite's electronic equipment. The problem with kinetic energy ASAT is that it creates debris that makes the orbital useless. So, when the system uses some kind of directed energy weapons, that destroy the target-satellite's electronics.
Above: Nano-ROVs (Remotely operating vehicles) operate inside the human body in this artist's vision. It's possible, that in the future this kind of system use lasers or acoustic systems as propulsion.
Nano-size ROVs can operate even in the human body.
Lasers are suitable for micro-ROVs (Remotely operating vehicles)
The micro- or nano-ROVs can even operate inside the human body. And they can remove single cells from the body. Those systems have multiple missions in civil and military areas.
The idea of the use of a laser or microwave-based propulsion system is probably stolen from some nanotechnical solutions. That system is like a rocket engine that expands liquid in a combustion chamber that looks like a rocket engine using lasers or some other systems, that can create the thrust. Sometimes is introduced to use phonons for that purpose.
That kind of propulsion system denies the need to use an electric engine. And it makes it possible to create smaller nanomachines that can move very fast and long distances. However, the use of those rocket systems in full-scale nuclear submarines is not so good idea. But the future submarine offers a platform to operate multiple different manned, and unmanned systems.
The Chinese laser technology in submarines is one of the most interesting things in the world. In some sources, the use of laser propulsion in submarines is debunked.
And the reason for that is this: the plasma engines will not create enough thrust. The fact is that the Chinese researchers are not told, what kind of submarine they want to put that system. There is little difference between a 150-meter-long nuclear submarine, and a less than one to ten-meter-long underwater remotely operating vehicle, ROV. The small underwater drone can use laser or microwave systems that work as an underwater rocket. That denies the need to use conventional propellers.
It's also possible that ROV can simply load its batteries from a laser ray. In some visions, the future submarines travel in a swarm of ROVs that can be extremely long-range underwater kamikaze drones. Some of those ROVs can used against torpedoes and combat swimmers. And the larger ones can be used against other submarines and warships.
There can be many size ROVs that the submarine can use to watch its back. They can observe its environment. And warn if there is something that might put it in danger. The submarine can also deliver ROVs for intelligence and recon missions.
There are two ways to make the laser engine for submarines. The first way is to boil water in a rocket chamber. There are some kinds of particles in the chamber, and the laser will warm those particles. That thing expands water and puts the submarine in the move. Maybe that is ineffective in large submarines but the system can be effective in a very small ROV.
In some other models, the forward-aimed laser system makes a hole in the water. The idea is that the combination of laser and acoustic system makes the channel in the water. And that channel pulls a submarine in it. That makes also small ROVs able to operate at high speed.
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-scientists-laser-propulsion-silent-superfast-submarines-flawed-laser-expert-2024-4
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3270890/china-could-attack-starlink-satellites-submarine-laser-weapon-naval-study
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2024/07/30/china-laser-weapon-submarines/
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