Posted on 09/16/2014 11:08:57 AM PDT by mandaladon
We don't have X-wing fighters just yet, but we may soon have their laser weapons. DARPA is working on a system that's downright Lucasian.
Prepare yourself for a future filled with real-life pew pew! The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working with Lockheed Martin to test "a new beam control turret... to give 360-degree coverage for high-energy laser weapons operating on military aircraft."
In other words, it stuck a primitive (by rebel standards) "Star Wars"-style laser cannon on a fighter jet and flew it over Michigan eight times.
"These initial flight tests validate the performance of our ABC turret design," Lockheed's Doug Graham said. in a release.
That ABC stands for Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control, which is designed to allow high-energy lasers to fire on enemy aircraft and missiles from a full 360 degrees -- above, below, and behind the aircraft.
The test flights demonstrated the airworthiness of the turret, but it doesn't appear that anyone or anything in the Great Lakes region was actually zapped as part of testing.
Still, this represents a significant move toward the inevitable merging of the "Star Wars" universe with our own so-called "reality." We've already seen the Navy's laser weapon that's set to deploy, and science has discovered how to create a real-life lightsaber, so perhaps it would be wise to start scanning the galaxies not just for potentially habitable exoplanets, but for planet-size super weapons as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Now get pilots who can hit a tiny target without a computer and we have something!
look @ TFX (flying car; maybe better than the Mollier :)
http://youtu.be/HuXbM0kaD7k
Pilot to gunner: Okay, Fire when ready!
Gunner: Done sir!
Pilot: Our tail just fell off!
Gunner: The target was behind us, sir!........................
Oh, hilarious!
That’s either an excellent Photoshop job or my dream has come true.
Umm..
Did they zap any of your bear, bambi, possum, 'coon, or chupacabra population while they were over head?
...or any feral demoncrats?
It might explain that hole in the top of Michael Brown’s head.
That would be a great shot - from Detroit all the way to Ferguson...
Did the autopsy reveal char marks on the edges of that, um, bullet hole??
With sufficient altitude...
Sadly it seems Russia and China have these plans in their hands before the ink dries on the paper...
And now, they will have to develop a system to defeat the laser for when it is mounted on Chinese and Russian aircraft...
They never found that round rod that made that defect.
A-10 fighter pilots
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