"June 11, 2004: The United States military has already created combat laser weapons that work, and is now hustling to get some of these designs ready for troop use."
Over John Efin Kerry's dead body!! If kerry wins in November you can bet the house that this program dies a swift death.
Wake Up America!
When this laser tech becomes common, it will lessen the advantage of airpower. If you can see an aircraft or missle you can shoot it down. Eventually you may not even have to see it just have the laser or other beam weapon to scan sections of the sky, like a TV cathode ray.
This is the missile defense. The idea of sending rockets up to knock the missiles down is a bust. You should be able to take out hundreds of missiles in a few seconds with lasers, though.
This is only tangentially related, but it seems likely that someday these weapons will be scaled down to handheld size.
I wonder if its worth laying the groundwork now so that these weapons are considered in the same way that handguns are (i.e. that citizens have a right to bear them for defense) and not cateogorized as "military-type weapons" subject to prohibitions.
Could you spray very fine particulate compounds in the atmosphere that might defeat-
deflect laser?