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Laser Shoots Down Artillery Shell In Flight
An anonymous reader writes "The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser is a joint project between the US Army and the Israeli Defense Ministry, with much of the work being done by TRW. Tuesday they had a spectacular success when they shot an artillery shell out of the air."
... when they fire one of these at a disco ball? heh.
...but is this thing as accurate as Luke Skywalkers light-sabre?
If not, you'll have to use the (air)force, George...
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
They say in the article that it was developed by the army and TRW, but we all know it was Mitch Taylor and Chris Knight.
Do you put a GPS and transmitter in an artillery shell?
No, that was James Bond.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Yipee! Won't we all be safe once the "civilized world" is protected from the barbarians? Why, the "bad people" won't even be able to shoot at usat all, let alone support the "terror-ists" with their insidious "terror-ism".
So, lets review. 'Predator' unmanned aircraft armed with Hellfire missles for patrol and attacks, lasers to shoot down artillery (and you know bullets are coming soon), Star Wars V2 to protect us from missiles, and any country that tries to develop anything we don't like gets a "regime change".
Yeah, I can't see why the rest of the world hates the west, can you? We turn war into a fuckin' video game, and relegate them to attacking us with swords while riding their camels.
I know it's the natural evolution of war, but it also seems like the natural evolution of capitalism applied to the battlefield. He with the most money to make the best toys wins, and he who doesn't hopes for an aid package to be sent to his widow.
Of course, we might get charitable in a few years and let them have some low powered lasers, but only if they attach them to the sharks... I mean, come on, is it too much to ask for some sharks with frickin lasers on their heads?
I think it's time for some sugar... rants like this could be dangerous... nice Echelon, niiiice Echelon.
Hm, maybe I should get a book on lasers from the librar
NO CARRIER
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
Where does the laser go if they miss the shell? Disperse into a cloud? Hit a passing 747?
Somehow, I doubt a 747 would be flying into a live fire area (Iraqi airliners excepted). Many current artillery shells have high trajectories that go several km in altitude. As a matter of fact, I once worked on a system that had an operator warning "NOTIFY NASA", for when a shell trajectory was computed to go above a certain altitude.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Who? Who is predictable?
This is Jesus Kent. Stop playing with yourself.
GetTheJob.com : Nothing but Real Jobs.
"Didn't they have this back in the 60's? correct me if I'm wrong, I was always told this. "
Well, the technnology was developed recently, but yeah it did exist in the 60's. I think it was called the Alan Parsens Project.
"Derp de derp."
Scott: "I mean why don't you just call it Operation Wang Chung? Ass!"
Evil: "Well what, what should we?"
Scott: "Nothing, I'm sure Operation Bananarama will be huge!"
Evil: "What are you saying?"
Scott: "If you..."
Evil: "..Shh!"
Scott: "..trying to be hip."
Evil: "double-u, double-u SHH dot com. Dot org."
Scott: "You suck!"
Evil: "SHH!"
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All I asked for is that the word "la-ser" be printed with quote marks around it, is that so hard?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
That's a *phasor*. Lasers are so 2280.
You should be skepticle. If the laser weapon can blast off a flying object at a distance, it should burn a lot of energy making repeated firing difficult.
In a real battle field, you cannot stop your enemy by saying "Wait guys, I am reloading ".
I'm suprised no one else caught this. The initial description of "concentrated light energy photons" made me a little wary, but then I noticed:
"the laser tracked, locked onto and fired a burst of concentrated light energy photons at the speeding shell... Seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed"
I dunno what kind of crazy trajectory that laser had, but at 300km a second, this thing must have been pretty darn far away...
One would think that "instantly, the projectile was destroyed" would sound even better--and more importantly, have been accurate.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
using this "laser" I will hold the world ransom for....1 MILLION DOLLARS
"Mini me stop humping the laser..ok..honest to
god...Why don't you and the giant laser get a
fricken room for god's sake?"
?sp
Now if only it could shot down those AOL cd's on route to my house.
Thirty years from now, the greatest challenge to our armed forces will be how to deal with the POWs. No power on Earth will be able to oppose us when we decide to bend other nations to our will.
Unless they have box-cutters.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
In our atmosphere, light travels at approximately the speed of sound.
<SARCASM>
Yeah, that's why pilots of supersonic jets don't bother with radio, because they fly faster than the radio signals.
</SARCASM>
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.