Posted on 02/12/2011 3:56:34 PM PST by pissant
The Airborne Laser is the pursuit of a military Holy Graila workable ray gun. But there may be only one thing harder than trying to perfect it: Trying to kill it.
The futuristic weapon, conceived to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles not long after they blast off, stayed on the drawing board in the early 1990s. Then, it survived an effort to slash its funding at the end of the Clinton administration. And in 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gutted the program, telling Congress, "There's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Yet two years after being consigned to procurement purgatory, it is still flying test missions. All told, the Pentagon has spent around $5.2 billion on the project since 1996, according to the Missile Defense Agency, the Pentagon unit responsible for the program.
On Monday, the Obama administration will submit its budget request for fiscal 2012, in the midst of a protracted fight over deficits and spending. With much of federal spending tied up in health-care programs and Social Security, the Pentagonwith its $700 billion budgethas emerged as a focus for budget cutters. Mr. Gates has launched his own effort to rein in spending, and has been joined by some Republican lawmakers who argue the once-sacrosanct Pentagon budget needs a shave. House Republicans are now weighing spending cuts for the current fiscal year, which envisions a smaller increase than the administration wants.
Americans put a muslim in the white hut and the country is broke. Cut cut cut. Eff the defense contractors and idiots who watch TV who elected the Islamic. Cut cut cut and cut more.
Missile defenses? No flippin way. Especially LASER
I’m on board for Gates finding a new job either way.
deport all illegals and cease unemployment benefit extensions. People will find work if they can’t get free money and the illegals are gone.
Dittos.
He can take Mike Mullen with him. They can tend bar together at the gay nightclub of their choice.
And this was an important step to the only practical future for the defense of our Country, space based directed energy weapons. Always take the high ground.
Why are scientists on the wrong side of history so often?
Lasers are important, and the Free Electron Laser, etc. are receiving more funding.
The Airborne Laser, however, is a chemically-powered mess with no realistic chance of working that should have been killed long ago.
Jeez, that is peanuts compared to what they have spent of far less futuristic project.
That faggot is the first JC Chair in U.S. history to never see a single minute of combat in his multi-decade career. Remarkable how high he could climb in the service when the only action he saw was watching porn on his office PC.
Bush gave $30 billion to African dictators to improve his image after Katrina, er I mean under the guise of "fighting HIV" (yeah right). He might as well have burned it on the National Mall.
I don't know why, but scientists tend to be leftist loonies. Therefore, they are on the wrong side of history most of the time.
It must be a genetic thing.
Nonsense. It has been very, very promising.
I agree that airborne chemical lasers are a pipe dream but the FEL and solid state lasers are very promising.
Lord knows I'm less than Gates's biggest fan, but he's right about this one. Laser research yes, the Airborne Laser boondoggle no.
You have no clue what you are babbling about.
“Missile defenses? No flippin way. Especially LASER”
Your credentials are . . . ?
“Missile defenses? No flippin way. Especially LASER”
Well, you obviously don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
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