Legendsmith said:
I fail to see what's so exciting; electro-lasers aren't exactly news.
I suppose that people are also unaware that there are prototypes of nuclear powered drones and that Australia has a plasma drive?
Understandably, we keep some of these fun "new" technology under wraps until they are almost done. Some people might assume that the Army was just wasting money building something that would never work, so no funding for you. Now no one can say it will not work because "here is new prototype showing that it can work rather well".
Sadly, that is how a lot of good projects get cancelled. The US civilian infrastructure is vulnerable to an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack because many US Senators said, to the scientists, that it "sounded like Science fiction", so no money for you. Never mind that the Military infrastructure is harden to resist an EMP, Congress only gets a say on what you spend when you tell them about it.
In other words, if the terrorist do get their hands on a nuclear bomb, hope they waste it on a city. That is only a few million casualties and maybe a trillion dollars in damages. If they manage to get it up 25 miles above the earths surface then, no more of ANY electronics within a 2500 mile radius. No cars or trucks running supplies, No radio telling people where too go for evacuation, No working hospital equipment (other than non-powered, of course). The lower estimates are in the 80-100 million range for casualties (between starvation and civil unrest) and almost a Quadrillion (1000 trillion) dollars in damages.
Darn, I like too rattle on and on. How did I even get on this subject?
