DAWN OF THE AIRBORNE LASER

popular science ^ | march-2003 | by Mark Farmer

[Libertarianize the GOP]

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

[ffusco]

this is so cool!

[ffusco]

Can we call it The Zeus Missile defense system?

[clueless idiot]

I submit we call it the Zot!

[RandyRep]

Obviously - ZOT is the right name!

[CasearianDaoist]

Wait until they can fit one inside an F-22 that can take out air to air missles and SAMs. A team of those teamed with regular fighters would be unstoppable.

[Thom Pain]

SHAZAAM!

[First_Salute]

OK. So ...

During the World Series, at Yankee Stadium, a New York Yankee appears to "knock one out of the park!"

But from nearby La Guardia Field, an Atlanta Braves fan and nephew of Ted Turner's, piloting Ted Turner's private 747-400F, fires his ABL at the baseball and fries it crisp --- it's ashes --- just before the baseball would have gone over the center field wall.

Is it a home run or not?

(For the purposes of discussion, disregard the forest fires set all along the turnpikes north to Poughkeepsie and the burning barricks roofs at West Point.)

[Defender2]

#4. This system is much more mobile and flexible than the Nike Zeus system of the late 50's early 60's. The same can be said of the Spartan system. ABL is much more mobile and flexible.

[mgstarr]

God bless Ronald Reagan.

[LibKill]

I submit we call it the Zot!

I wish I had said that.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

the central component in the now-abandoned Star Wars program floated during the Reagan administration. The technological breakthroughs generated by that failed program were folded into the ABL effort.

Gorbychev himself stated that Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative--and Reagan's refusal to bargain it away--were decisive in the chain of events leading to the fall of the USSR. In what sense, then, was SDI a "failed program?"

The more so now that the program has a spinoff in active development, the true "failure" was of the administration which abandoned SDI in the first instance. Wonder who that was???!

[Moonman62]

It has taken decades of similar engineering advances to make the ABL feasible. The military has been noodling around with laser weapons since the early days of the cold war. The United States and the former Soviet Union both conducted experiments with nuclear-powered naval and satellite-based lasers, all intended to bring down intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers. Eventually, the idea became the central component in the now-abandoned Star Wars program floated during the Reagan administration. The technological breakthroughs generated by that failed program were folded into the ABL effort.

Something tells me the author is a liberal Democrat.

[error99]

Interference

[error99]

I submit we call it the Ronald Ray-Gun !

[RightWhale]

Ground rules double.

[backhoe]

Releated development:

-Israel's Arrow Anti-Missile System and the THEL...--

[Gunslingr3]

millions for defense, not one cent for tribute ping...

[1rudeboy]

No. Because the ball should be considered as hitting an object in the field of play. The fact that it disappeared afterward would be a matter for baseball theologians and their lawyers.

Result: possibly counting as a strike against the batter.