[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

[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 . . .

[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!

[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.

[freebilly]

[Dark Wing]

ping

[Young Werther]

Read Tom Clancy's "The Cardinal of the Kremlin".

One Soviet directed energy weapon used a nuclear explosion to create a particle beam. the nuclear bomb would explode in a metal lined chamber. When the metal shell vaporized it would form an instantaneous electrical differential within a circuit which would produce an electrical current which would then produce the proton particvle beam. Kinda like "chained lightning".

[Physicist]

The United States has a pronounced lead over all other countries, but its potential success may encourage others to follow suit, setting up a new kind of arms race; it may also lead to opponents developing new ways of retaliating. In the light of the attacks of 11 September, this is not to be discounted.

What a stinking load of unprocessed sewage. The 9/11 attacks didn't take place because we had developed weapons that worked too well. So now because of the 9/11 attacks, we're supposed to hamstring ourselves, for fear that if we gain an unfair advantage, it will make somebody mad enough to hurt us?

[VaBthang4]

((((((((((((((((((((PING)))))))))))))))))))))

[Wonder Warthog]

"Of course, there are possible countermeasures, such as strengthening the missile or making it spin in flight, but both are difficult...

Oh, PLEASE--they have been making missiles spin in flight since the days of Congreve rockets (War of 1812). If this article makes so simple and fundamental an error, how accurate is the rest of it!!!!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

It is a high-energy laser known as the airborne laser (ABL), the first element of an innovative system that could end up arming a series of powerful satellites able to target anywhere on the Earth’s surface with near impunity.

Oooooooooo! Where can I get one?

(inserting right pinky into corner of mouth and raising right eyebrow...)