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Contrarian Opinion:

This is disaster for USAF. All our LandWar battle plans require that we first establish air supremacy, or at least air superiority. Imagine Gulf Wat One without the weeks of softening of Iraqi targets by air assets. Imagine Gulf War Two without the F-15s, F-16s and Apaches destroying Iraqi anything that moved.

Think about it. If we have this weapon system, the Russians can reproduce it quickly. There is nothing really special here. It's simply a bigger, better, badder laser. In other words, it's a ray gun.

The Russians will certainly sell it to others. If it can be mounted on a C-130, it can certainly be fitted into the back of a 5 ton all terrain truck. If its guidanvce-stabalization system is good enough to work from an A/C, it's certainly good enough to operate from a stopped truck. If it's powerful enough to destroy ground targets, it's certainly effective enough to knock the wing off a USAF A/C.

And when you're shooting at the speed of light, any woggie who has ever pointed a BB gun at a paper target can hit a passing A/C.

Not good.