Directed energy: a new kind of weapon

OpenDemocracy ^ | July 31, 2002 | Paul Rogers

[Britton J Wingfield]

I wish Reagan was still around to say, "I told you so."

[tet68]

However, two years later (according to the scenario), a paramilitary group allied to the rebels released a particularly potent strain of anthrax up-wind of the huge US spy base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, killing many people in the surrounding area and leading to a bitter row between London and Washington.

In other words, what may appear to be a seductive and effective way of maintaining control may, in the longer term, have a very different effect.

Hmmmmmm. somehow I don't see the connection.

[Quix]

GO FOR IT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE--IF WE ALREADY HAVEN'T.

for later filing

[First_Salute]

By all means; in wartime, let us blab about our assets; let's just do everything we can to help the enemies understand.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Stop humpin the fricken LASAR mini-me

[nothingnew]

Directed energy: a new kind of weapon

Gee, the kids in "Children of the Damned" just used a big pipe organ and shattered brains with it. Why not get big, humongous speakers pointed at the enemy and play Manilow songs at them?

FMCDH

[gcruse]

Manilow? My god man, that's a war crime!

[sourcery]

Worrying about laser weapons two decades in the future, when nanotech/biotech will also be critical issues, is like worrying about termites while your house is on fire.

[max61]

Nikola Tesla hypothesized about the use of directed energy weapons back in the 19th century. He even offered to build them for the government, of course they refused and then stole his research notes after he died.

---max

[maestro]

Directed energy: a new kind of weapon

"Cool",.........Lets call it, "Enron".

[LibWhacker]

. . . which will house a three megawatt chemical oxygen–iodine laser (COIL) taking up most of the fuselage.

Seems so clunky to me. I wonder if any work has been done on "nuclear lasers?" In other words, not using lasers to initiate nuclear reactions but just the opposite: using a nuclear reactor to generate laser light. Much more powerful than chemical lasers, much more compact, and able to operate "indefinitely" for all intents and purposes, which seems to me to be highly desirable for satellite-based lasers. Of course, this is total speculation on my part . . . I was just wondering . . .

[demlosers]

It looks very much as if we are at the beginning of a technology revolution with extremely uncertain consequences.

This author ends in a negative, he's not a fan. Many of his BUTS are just silly... well what if the bad guys do this or that, implying direct energy weapons can become ineffective easily. Also what you pointed out, the guy displays incoherent logic.

[Madcelt]

Mars Attacks (hee hee)

[Vidalia]

For local idiots, perverts and office holders, we used to call them "closed fists directed with power and without arc directly toward the targeted body section, and they were very effective...

They should be pulled out of storage.

Much like the very successful Oklahoma laws giving the parents of unruly and disobedient children the "RIGHT TO SPANK".

But unlike children, local idiots, perverts and office holders deserve much more...

Using the fists gives the Legislative ass the option to yell "UNCLE".

Yeah, they are on break, let these "I'm above the law" basturds know how you feel about them personally and what you think of their theatrical performances so many hundreds and thousands of miles away.

The answer to their Hubris is a local kick in the ass with a camera on the scene.

What's more important, a kick in the ass for an ass (with the possibility of a short night in the hoosgow, or the welfare of your children and grandchildren?

[Vindibudd]

FREAKING satellites with FREAKING LAYzers on their FREAKING heads!

[Cachelot]

Seems so clunky to me. I wonder if any work has been done on "nuclear lasers?"

I think the Russians did some while they were still "Soviets".

[gcruse]

Are you saying we should fight the next war with our fists?

[Crazymonarch]

A bit later in 1940 he offered for 3 million dollars to build a device which could knock every plane out of the sky within a 200 mile radius and would take 3 months to make,he never got the funding-then of course 1 year later Pearl Harbour happened,we now know what he was on about an emp weapon,like THIS-STARTING AT $400

[Fzob]

The ABL is the linchpin of the current directed energy programme, being developed jointly by three of the largest arms corporations in the US – Boeing, Lockheed and TRW. The system is based on a highly modified Boeing 747 transport aircraft, which will house a three megawatt chemical oxygen–iodine laser (COIL) taking up most of the fuselage. This, along with targeting beams, will be directed at an ascending missile over a range of up to 400 miles, and will lase (i.e. irradiate) it to heat the metal casing, making it crumple and collapse. If the system works, this could be done in a matter of seconds, largely because an accelerating missile is under tremendous stress, and even a modest weakening of the structure should cause implosion.

Call me a skeptic, but I ain't buying that we are even remotely close to implementing this type of technolgy.