U.S.S. Portland shoots down drone with Laser Weapon....way cool..

https://youtu.be/xP94wR-wq4g ^ | 5/23/20 | Basalt

[dp0622]

yeah i thought the USSR had a bunch of suitcase nukes in the US way back and vice versa.

maybe this whole detonating a nuke think or delivering it or building it is a little harder than I think :)

[L.A.Justice]

Laser...

I am reminded of some Bond films...

Goldfinger...It was used to break into Fort Knox...

Man with the Golden Gun...Scaramanga used the laser to destroy Bond’s plane...

[ConservaTeen]

Jacksonville is a Republican city. Just because Urban = Dem it isn’t true.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Urban = Dem

There's an exception to every rule. Any exception is exactly that.

[PIF]

The Amphibious Warship USS Portland Has Shot Down A Drone With Its New High-Power Laser
The successful test of the powerful laser is a major step forward for the Navy's directed energy weapons ambitions.
By Joseph Trevithick May 22, 2020

[Colorado Doug]

Go look at the dwell and recharge time between shots. Also, this was hitting a slow, prop driven drone, not a hypersonic seaskimming missile.

You have to start somewhere.

[RideForever]

They ought to lob a couple rounds into the city of Portland while they’re at it.

---

Hey, if they’re that close, lob a few at Seattle as well ...

[Spktyr]

Not arguing that, but the reality is that this is not a CIWS replacement effective against an evasive seaskimmer and pretending that it is is actually worse than having nothing.

It is a beginning, nothing more.

[bobby.223]

“Hey, just what you see pal”

[Mastador1]

Yeah what bullshit Reagan’s vision was, eh?

[M Kehoe]

8^)

5.56mm

[M Kehoe]

*1

5.56mm

[corkoman]

It would seem that this weapon is indeed a good one for downing drones.

For every fancy hypersonic missile there may be 100 drones each with a nasty payload.

I gotta think that laser would also be wep of choice when close to ports.

[Fightin Whitey]

Here! Here!

[Spktyr]

HSMs and conventional seaskimmers plus high angle ballistics in large quantity are the most likely threat in the near to mid future.

Also, we don’t generally have the power generation capacity on board most ships to rapid fire a laser; long, long pauses between lasing. Right now this is great if the Portland is attacked by Cessna 172s coming one at a time with 30+ minutes between them.

[RockyTx]

this story could be true.
partly true.
or total bs.

I just don’t know,
and I won’t take their word for it.

[GreyHoundSailor]

It’s not as easy as you seem to believe. Nobody can ‘lob missiles’ unless they have an identified target, which takes a serious amount of air assets, given a ship can move more than 750 NM in a day.

Additionally, there are tens of thousands of merchant ships on the seas. Trail a few of them and your adversary’s targeting ability disappears, unless they’re willing to kill them all, which isn’t likely.

[Paul R.]

Yup.

It made me think of that FReeper “Greetings Puny Humans” screen name!

Granted that even we “puny humans” now have the capability, granted that it’s at our “upper limit”, to steer a good sized (Chicxulub) asteroid into a planet. Assuming we have 20 years or so to work with, and are really that crazy.