[Paul Ross]

Interesting how the Pentagon overruled the commanders in the Army who really wanted to go ahead and deploy THEL. The Phalanx would never stop artillery shells in mid-flight...and its range is drastically less than the THEL. Not to mention that Phalanx suffers from a lowered capability to deal with an overwhelmeing barrage.

This reminds me of one of the key logistics lessons of WW-II...the best is often the enemy of the good enough. Remember how the politician...Hitler in that case...messed with the Wehrmacht's first jet designs which were fighters...instead of ordering immediate production, he told them to change it into a bomber. By the time Germany had finished those, and essentially begun to make alternative jet fighters (reversing that initial decision)...it was too late to make a difference.

So many of our decisions in procurement today seem to be predicated on extreme over-confidence about the amount of time we have to be fully prepared. There is just no proper sense of the imminence of a major disasterous attack on the U.S. and its allies....and no sense of urgency in procurements. And this goes all the way to the top... September 10th mind-sets, it's not just an attitude of the RATs.

[G8 Diplomat]

First, the global concern over Iran and its fledgling nuclear weapons program reached the United Nations.
Oh, that'll solve everything.../sarcasm/

[ChadGore]

Re: THEL, like any energy weapon, has no such problem.

A good point. No secondary ballistic effects, and the muzzle velocity can't be beat.

What it does need is lazing time.

Once it's tracking the target it takes time to "bake" the target enough to get either a breakup or explosion.

[operation clinton cleanup]

The data shows that only 39 civilians were killed by the estimated 4,000 missiles fired by Hezbollah and over half of these people were Arabs.

Now there is an interesting fact that should be screamed from the rooftops!