Aviation Ping!...................
That does not look like a directed energy weapon to me.
No sir.
I’ve seen this movie before.
I wanted sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!!
Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won’t you guide our bomber group tonight. 🎅🎄
>> A rendering General Atomics previously released depicting a laser weapon-armed Avenger.
“A rendering”. With the requisite fake red laser beam wreaking havoc on the enemy below!
Still, it’s good that America is working on this technology. Hopefully without overly enriching General Atomics for the half-assed results that seem to be the par in technology today. Pardon me! My cynicism is showing. :-)
It looks a little photoshopped. But it is very cool they are developing this technology. Many years ago drove from Las Vegas to Reno and went by Indian Springs Air Force Base. That was drone central - hundreds on the runways.
Pretty cool should it ever come about. A high energy beam traveling at the speed of light virtually removes the need for the user to mentally calculate any deflection (leading a moving target, gravity influenced drop, etc). You hit what is in your sights the instant you pull the trigger. I would guess that the only variable is the distance to the target as the beam may spread and weaken at longer distances.
” as long as there is sufficient power and cooling capacity “
Aye, there’s the rub.
Never addressed the issue that I saw in a scan.
These big, slow drones were developed over 2 decades ago and good for ops like surveilance and dropping hellfires undetected - but hard to deploy.
You need total air superiority and there’s huge overhead. You need an airfield and a large infrastructure of equipment and men to run them.
Same person sitting in the cockpit of both MQ-9s?
“All we can say about that is we have a laser.”
My cat lets me play with his.
What sort of power plant is required for the laser? Lots of 12v car batteries wired in series might be too heavy. So small nuclear reactors it is.
Could be used as high flying agents...attacking other incoming drones or hypersonic missiles. I wonder how much of the laser energy is dissipated by water vapor, or clouds? But at higher altitudes, less water vapor. Alternatively could be used to kill SAMs or AAMs trying to destroy our aircraft.
Missile defense was the first thing that came to mind when I read the headline. Good to see it mentioned in the story. This seems like a PERFECT use for it.
Well, missiles, and bomb drones.
Phasers! Set them to stune