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."

Comments

Re:What happens if you miss?

[SmilingMonk]

Perhaps you will recall that the former Soviet Union was able to strike and wipe out one of our intel-sats using a particle beam. So yes, these can be used over quite a distance.

Food for thought -

Changing the Face of the Battlefield

[FFFish]

"Tactical high energy lasers have the capacity to change the face of the battlefield," he [Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano] added.

Not nearly as much as, say, PEACE would change it.

Gahd. If we put 1/3rd as much money into peace as we do war, there'd be no wars.

(Globally, some $800 billion is spent on the military. We need all of about $20 billion to feed everyone, and another $10 billion to provide clean water. It'd take only $30 billion to retire the debts of all developing nations.

And then there'd be a lot of happier, healthier people ready to make a go at bringing peace to earth.)

is this some kind of joke?

[shren]

I can't help but feel that future tacticians will laugh at these toys we're pumping out. There's no way we can build a defense system against the kinds of weapons we can make now. How do you defend against an airburst nuke? You don't. What does this do against gas attacks? Zilch. What happens if it's power supply is sabotaged? Ouch. They can sit around with thier high energy lasers and play star wars untill the cows come home. It won't change a thing. An era of warfare is ending, and a new one is beginning

The soldier of the future is undetectable. He'll be able to look like a native, walk like a native, and pass as a native - and under his normal looking clothes he'll have enough ordinance to destory 5 metropolises in succession - or kill a single target.

Inevitably, the established war machine learns from it's enemies, the easy way or the hard way. Consider the revolutionary war, the korean war, the vietnam war. Each has brought about an evolution in tactics. If we really are in a new war on terrorism, then the tenant that we start from is this - anything that is in a fixed location can be found and destroyed.
The new tactics will revolve around not having a fixed position and preventing your current position from being discovered.

Look at that toy and tell me what relevance it has to modern war. Answer: dick. We'll be able to sell them, and that's about it. The stealth bomber is probably the last step in the right direction the military has taken in a long, long, long time.

Giant laser beams. All we need is a giant shark to attach it to and we'll be right on our fucking way! Crap.

How much money did the Israelis throw in?

[corebreech]

Assuming that we actually get to employ this weapon system in a war we are justified in fighting, I am very concerned about Israeli participation in this project.

The Israelis have a history of taking our weapon technologies and putting them on the market, often without consulting us in advance. An excellent example is the AWACS capabilities we've recently provided them that have found their way into the arsenal of the Chinese and which could end up costing the lives of American servicemen if the Taiwan strait heats up.

This would be particularly damaging with this weapon system, given its ability to dull the effectiveness of the mainstay of our military capability, that is, dropping and/or launching projectiles at otherwise defenseless adversaries.

Might this be a case of a weapon system whose chief expense was in its design? Now that it is understood how to create these things, is it possible that they might be produced inexpensively, and by nations that normally aren't capable of fielding hi-tech weaponry?

Instead of working to enhance our security, I can envision a scenario where exactly the opposite takes place.

But then again, if we continue to engage in immoral campaigns like Serbia, Afghanistan and Colombia, perhaps it's all for the best.

Maybe the Palestinians can build one.