US Military Testing Jet-Mounted Lasers in 2014

[jamesbrown]

I love the fact that a lot of sci-fi series were pretty much right when they said lasers would work better as a more short range weapon rather than something like a orbital death ray.

Keep in mind the issue here is atmospheric interference. In space distance becomes much less of an issue.

Even in space that will be a problem because the inverse square law means that the intensity will go down the further you are, here's an explanation of how it works with a laser. [http://www.quora.com/Is-the-light-from-lasers-reduced-by-the-inverse-square-law-as-distance-grows-similar-to-other-light-sources]

 

[LordMonty]

Yahzee's Warfighter review underlines my point of view on this. When you have battle robots with lasers and the enermy has rocks whose the agressive super power with a much to large military expendature and whose the pissed of under dog 3rd world country. Amusing but hey I sure hope we find some aliens to beat to death soon its the only way our race will survive.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Hey, this technology is going to be useful far beyond military. It doesn't matter if the US needs lasers or not, if you want a laser toaster this is the way you're going to get it.

 

[Braedan]

Jet fighters are getting point defense lasers?

I'M LIVING IN THE FUTURE

 

[Ldude893]

Excellent. All that needs to be done is to research EMP cannons and Firestorms, and now the U.S. can take down UFOs with ease.

 

[Meight08]

If the US military stopped spending so much money on ways to kill brown people they might actually be able to get their economy back on track.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Its official, we are living in the future. How long until I get my holo-porn and jetpack?

 

[Do4600]

Although, a Boing 747 as a weapons platform? Clearly you could have used cooler planes than something FedEx uses to send hand-knitted frog trousers off of etsy around the world.

Because our new $66.7 billion space age, air superiority fighter is a $150 million per unit way to strangle Air Force pilots.

Relevant captcha: Face the Music

 

[rutger5000]

Look we have to prepare for an eventual Alien invasion. Ask yourself this: Do you really want humanity to face an inter-galactic civilization without the use of laser? Every knows that aliens are pretty much immune to conventional weaponry so we have to have reliable jet mounted lasers to stand a chance to defend ourselves.

 

[Do4600]

I guess a point could be made about lasers not creating collateral damage, but usually the point of signature strikes (killing unknown, totally unidentified people who are merely suspected of being enemy combatants) *is* to kill whole groups of them at a time. So I suppose a clean-kill weapon like a laser would defeat the point.

I'm not sure a laser would work all that well against people, the way it does damage is through heat, on that boat it heats the bit of the engine to the point of combustion. Humans are resilient to quick bursts of heat, and the water in our tissue dampens the effectiveness of such a weapon. I think the reality is that that kind of laser would probably only cause quarter sized potholes a few centimeters deep of severely burnt flesh if you could keep it on them for a second or two. Now if that laser hit the engine and went right through, that would most certainly change things.

 

[Souplex]

I have often said that we will officially be in the future when pew-pew weapons see actual combat use, possibly replacing the traditional bang-bang weaponry.
The future seems really close now.

 

[Strazdas]

Laser based anti air defence, laser based planets.
Folks, i welcome you, to THE FUTURE.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Its official, we are living in the future. How long until I get my holo-porn and jetpack?

Holoporn, I don't know, but maybe you can get a jetpack here.
http://martinjetpack.com/

Well, next year. Their target date for selling to individuals is 2014.

 

[Doom972]

Yahzee's Warfighter review underlines my point of view on this. When you have battle robots with lasers and the enermy has rocks whose the agressive super power with a much to large military expendature and whose the pissed of under dog 3rd world country. Amusing but hey I sure hope we find some aliens to beat to death soon its the only way our race will survive.

What Yahtzee neglected to mention is that those underdogs had the nerve to attack countries with superior weaponry in the first place. Since they're so weak, it only makes sense that they wave the white flag and beg for forgiveness for their stupidity when the tanks, jets, robots, lasers, etc show up at their doorstep, so that it can end without bloodshed and both sides can live peaceful lives. Due to stupidity, it doesn't happen.

Some terrorist organizations have acquired anti-aircraft weapons, so it makes sense that the US would keep making developments in that area. Also, if the US want to keep their status as the most powerful superpower, they need to have the best weapons. The US obviously wants to keep that status.

 

[Zetatrain]

Why does the US need more weapons? With the shit ton of guns they already have, I think they are pretty safe from invasion.

An AR-15 isn't going to be much help against an ICBM with a nuclear payload. The whole lazors things is mostly about developing a defensive platform for feasable use in defending against nuclear payloads, without much risk to the environment because of atomic radiation. With North Korea and Iran getting closer and closer to nukes, and getting more belligerant by the second, developing something that can safely and reliably shoot down a nuke is the differance between a feasable way to finally phase-out nuclear weapons (due to being obsolete), and some idiot lighting a match and starting a global nuclear war.

Also, adapting lasers for smaller platforms means a drone strike can be a precise thing instead of "We'll bomb this village and hope that the blast wave, fireball, and shrapnel don't kill all of the children this time."

Didn't they scrap the whole ICBM defense project. In terms a missile defense this would probably be better suited for knocking out incoming SAMs.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Why does the US need more weapons? With the shit ton of guns they already have, I think they are pretty safe from invasion.

Invasion? No, no, no, this system is for deterrence and police action. With emphasis on defense at this stage.

Police action in this case refers to say a drug smuggling boat being disabled by the laser system. Or maybe even a police chase where the police can shoot the laser to flatten tires or, dare I dream, car engines.

The military does it first because they have the budget. 10 years later law-enforcement, and 20 years after them I will be evoking my second amendment rights to have a laser gun for deer hunting. I wonder if it would damage the meat and hide too much???

 

[Doom972]

Yahzee's Warfighter review underlines my point of view on this. When you have battle robots with lasers and the enermy has rocks whose the agressive super power with a much to large military expendature and whose the pissed of under dog 3rd world country. Amusing but hey I sure hope we find some aliens to beat to death soon its the only way our race will survive.

What Yahtzee neglected to mention is that those underdogs had the nerve to attack countries with superior weaponry in the first place. Since they're so weak, it only makes sense that they wave the white flag and beg for forgiveness for their stupidity when the tanks, jets, robots, lasers, etc show up at their doorstep, so that it can end without bloodshed and both sides can live peaceful lives. Due to stupidity, it doesn't happen.

Some terrorist organizations have acquired anti-aircraft weapons, so it makes sense that the US would keep making developments in that area. Also, if the US want to keep their status as the most powerful superpower, they need to have the best weapons. The US obviously wants to keep that status.

He also fails to mention that the scene in that game (I youtubed it) is preceded by about 20 guys with RPGS blowing the ever loving fuck out of a robot, and a squad it is protecting, before one of the people comes over and smashes its camera in with a rock, after blowing it to hell with said RPGs...

Can you please post a link to it?