The most interesting thing about this to my mind is that this is a solid-state laser. That's a huge leap right there. You just have to hook it up to an electrical source such as a vehicle or aircraft's engine. It is literally a weapon that can't run out of bullets so long as it has a power supply. Very, very interesting.
0bamessiah better check in with his Muslim masters to see if we can remain freinds with such a weapons system.
It may be required by them that we drop weapons development so we can be friends.
Ha ha! Too late for Obamapacifists to outlaw. Time to put this baby to work...
Ahhh, my taxes at work. 3 more years under an odumba administration and we should be launching spitballs at incoming missiles.
I want.
Israel can use this puppy on the border, pronto. Bet it could knock down Katyusha’s too.
’ can shoot down a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones.’
Great point about the solid state laser, and the ‘leap’. Dead on target there.
My question is since when have our troops been ‘threatened’ by UAV’s in combat zones?
Where has this occured? First I’ve heard of it.
Don’t misconstrue this. I’m all for the weapon system, because like many in the forum I understand we won’t always be dealing with 16th century jihadists.
You can do a lot of really, really cool things with lasers..............and popcorn!
And if they (Boeing and associates) were able to double the output power from over a year ago, it's certainly a lot closer to being released to battlefield units sooner than many other laser weapons systems.There may not be a ton of UAVs to be used against, but imaginative troops will find more uses for it,...despite any laws of land warfare concerns over what weapons cause more unnecessary suffering and which don't.
There's no mention how long (several seconds?) it actually takes the laser to destroy an inflight (UAV) or ground target (IED, UXO), but it obviously has other potential uses (disabling high voltage power lines and transformers, for instance? Or disabling civilian vehicles withot any evidence of the system being seen to fire its gun or missiles.).
Taking it further, the Stinger is the same 70mm/2.75inches in diameter as many of these precision guided rockets under development.
The vehicle already has optical fire control to engage targets at range, so it's certainly possible these rockets may be an option to replace Stingers where there aren't a lot of airborne threats.
Incorporating a laser designator won't be all that hard (I haven't been to Redstone in 3&1/2 years, hard to tell what other toys they're tinkering with since then).
Nothing about any laser is as simple as “just hooking up a power supply”. Moreover, laser beams travelling in the atmosphere are not simple things
Chrysler product?
But wot about point 'ead sticks?
Bottom line: Nice job but will we actually use this system in real wars?