[sonofatpatcher2]

Can Light Sabers be far behind?

[is_is]

and fired a burst of photons

ughhh....Captain Kirk......

[pfflier]

They keep telling us that this is not technically feasible!

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[ChadGore]

woooohooo

[hoosiermama]

Wonder why they are talking about this. (Not a secret weapon.) Could there be some psychological one-up-man-ship going on here?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

This is a fantastic accomplishment. Can you cite a more direct source? Some questions:

What was the wavelength? Visible light doesn't propagate through rain, fog and dust. Was it long wave IR?

Was it radar cued? Lasers sort of suck for searching.

Tropospheric distortion limits the ability to focus lasers, dry desert air is probably the least challenging test. Could this be applied to missile defense? High in the atmosphere, from an aircraft, there is practically no impairments. With enough energy you could burn-up incoming warheads. The enemy might try to cover them with mirrors, but presumably a powerful enough laser would just burn through the mirror. What if they launch corner reflectors on the same trajectory? Just speculating.

Any Freepers care to comment?

[Mariner]

6 or 8 of these things in geosynchronous orbit should take care of the anti-missle defense eh?

[Young Werther]

Several months back I posted an note from Aviation Week about F-16 simulators being modified so that pilots can practice employing their laser weapons during air to air and air to ground engagements.

Yeah, Saddam come get my Predators! I gottsa lil ol' surprise for you,.... and your little NK brothers too!!!!

[Rummyfan]

Is this for real? We're in Star trek territory here!

[Centurion2000]

Something that others might not realize. This just rendered planes obsolete of airspace within LOS of this thing.

Sure a plane can dodge a SAM missile,but photons ? Not a chance in hell.