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Truck-Mounted Laser Guns
bl8n8r writes "Boeing has announced a contract with the US Army to develop laser cannons that are to be mounted atop 20-ton trucks for the purpose of shooting down incoming artillery, rockets, mortars, or bombs. The High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator project actually shoots stuff instead of just painting a mark on a target for other armament to hit."
to be an American
Next put them in C-130s, or Jeeps, like Rat Patrol.
Yesterday: 747-mounted laser.
Today: Truck-mounted laser.
Tomorrow: Shark-mounted laser.
sudo eat my shorts
How soon will we see these being mounted on the heads of ill-tempered seabass?
Laser weapons are stupid. They are not efficient in an atmosphere. Its been proven many many times. Get over it nerds, this isn't star.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
This government is so incompetent!! Bush screwed up. Again...
Sharks, I wanted sharks. Is that so difficult?
would there be sharks driving these trucks?
Guns of destruction are bad.
But the kid in me says...
SA-WEEET!!!!!!
surrounding Seattle, but I think you're right. I would not want to fire one of these in the dust and smoke of a typical battlefield. That energy will just get dissipated locally which can't be a GoodThing.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The range to shoot down a RAM (rocket-artillery-mortar) threat is on the range of a few kilometers. Laser attenuation ovr that short a distance is pretty minimal. My master's thesis was on this concept, but swapping out the laser for a gun-launched projectile... you actually don't need that much focused energy to destroy a RAM threat mid-flight.
...but can it drive a 6 inch spike through a board with its penis?
With the current admin, we are much more likely to put them in a high quality Chery truck (made by china and to be sold shortly by Chrysler).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Nothing new, we saw this in the C&C: Generals game, when they were mounted on several USA vehicles.
I wonder how much power it takes to run and if it can target multiple incoming threats at once. It would be awesome if it could take on say 5 or 8 incoming mortars at the same time. Even better would be knocking out a barrage of RPG's. I guess the final implementation would be zapping bullets out of thin air which at that point you'd have a "shield" like in sci-fi. Military tech amazes me.
I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
A Goa'uld Death Glider?
Pro: Well-paid engineers and scientists are kept in the U.S. at work on neat toy, keeping valuable talent working on a difficult problem.
Con: Obscenely-paid CEOs who came up with idea to push this useless weapon get a huge payoff, keeping destructive leeches working on the simple problem of continuing corrupt government.
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
If there are a few hundred feet of dense clouds and smoke between you and the target, is the laser effective?
I guess the only consolation is that the enemy will have a harder time seeing you with all the clouds and smoke.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
rail gun projects? Nooooo...I think rail guns are way cooler, especially when they malfunction.
After the war, torture, Gitmo, NSA's unwarranted wiretapping and all the other crap that has made me ashamed to be an American, I'm glad that we can even for one brief moment have something cool like this.
Yeah, sure, we'll probably sad when they end up used to blind baby seals or to violate the Geneva convention (again), but quit ruining the moment, dammit. You made me misread "cherry truck" as "Cheney truck" and I was afraid I'd get zapped in the face by it.
Seriously, WTF?
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
lol laser sharks!
Call me when there are shark-mounted laser guns.
Nay, Bush will use them to shoot you, and your family!
I thought Strogg use lasers for anti arty.
GDF uses projectile turrets.
Oh, sorry, wrong forum. I've got only one thing on my mind.
to drain budget!
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
Why don't they just work with the already tested MTHEL system?
I think too many people in the military were playing moon patrol as kids.
The adult in me says ... Guns of destruction are bad.
No, that's the adolescent in you that says that. It wants to stop killing, hurting, and threatening, and goes after a tool that is capable of such things.
But once you've had enough time and thought to understand the unintended consequences of the simple "solution" - disarming the law-abiding - you'll reach the adult understanding that self-defense requires force, and that a credible threat of retaliatory force produces a net reduction in killing, hurting, and threatening.
"Mutual Assured Destruction" works at both the wholesale level (having prevented an all-out nuclear war for over half a century now) and the retail level (convincing crooks they want to leave you alone and either go after an easier victim or find a new line of work.)
Second-order effects often swamp first-order effects, producing (initially) counter-intuitive results. Part of growing up is learning which situations are like that, and what the useful counter-intuitive solutions are. (To people with less experience this is often mistaken for wisdom, cynicism, or evil.)
Unfortunately there is a significant fraction of the population that either never DOES grow up or never learns some important lessons about rare, but deadly, situations.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I want five megawatts by mid-may.
Have any trials been done on using the laser to fill a snide professor's house with popcorn? There could be a big market for this among the college crowd.
You make an excellent point. All the enemy needs to do is first fire a barrage of Jiffy Pop popcorn. when the laser hits it, the corn pops and rains down on the target. This should be sufficient in preventing the laser from knocking out the REAL rounds, which are fired second.
Hey, it works when fired from a satellite!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Here is a youtube link of a prototype system. It can track and destroy more than one target in flight before impact. I know there is a longer version of this video, but I found this one first, you'll get the idea. The longer one shows it engaging artillery shells, rockets, and mortar shells.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVxZ9IHTH2E
They don't mention using the truck lasers as anti-personnel blinding weapons in the article (probably because that would be against international law?) but I'm sure that's what would happen if a position was being overrun. Hard to imagine how infantry could defend against a beam powerful enough to zap artillery shells, certainly sunglasses wouldn't work, maybe welding goggles? Like using gas in WWI, the element of surprise might save the day one time (imagine if MacArthur had had these lasers when the Chinese People's Volunteer Army swarmed across the Yalu in the Korean War), but eventually both sides would have the weapons and it would be suicidal to cross a no-man's land under those circumstances. War has become far too deadly for fragile wetware, so now that the U.S. is fielding squadrons of drone aircraft, isn't it time to develop Wii-Remote Controlled T2000 combots? Talk about yer first-person shooters!
"I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans..." --Wintermute, William Gibson's "Neuromancer"
The Laser in the article is a development of the MTHEL project. The purpose of MTHEL is to defend positions against incoming rockets and mortars. One of the test videos actually shows the MTHEL hitting 3 different mortar rounds launched from 3 different positions all traveling through the air at the same time.
Ever watch a commercial for Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats.
.... ....
The adult in me says
The kid in me says
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Just like witches at black masses ...
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh lord yeah!
(Black Sabbath)
Could this be the first step towards a future of heavily-armoured and -armed cars and trucks, complete with laser cannons and oil slick emittors, like in Steve Jackson's Car Wars game?
Hey, it works when fired from a satellite! [imdb.com]
B1 Bomber, not a satellite. The "sales clip" was of a little shuttle-like craft, but the actual test used a B1.
All the enemy needs to do is first fire a barrage of Jiffy Pop popcorn. when the laser hits it, the corn pops and rains down on the target. This should be sufficient in preventing the laser from knocking out the REAL rounds, which are fired second.
So would this be called Jiffy Chaff?
The enemies of Democracy are
...it's been tried before, a long, long time ago... in a galaxy far, far away...
INTERIOR: DEATH STAR.
Walls buckle and cave in. Troops and equipment are blown in
all directions. Stormtroopers stagger out of the rubble.
Standing in the middle of the chaos, a vision of calm and
foreboding, is Darth Vader. One of his Astro-Officers rushes
up to him.
ASTRO-OFFICER: We count thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader. But they're so
small they're evading our turbo-lasers!
VADER: We'll have to destroy them ship to ship. Get the crews to their
fighters.
INTERIOR: DEATH STAR.
Smoke belches from the giant laser guns as they wind up their
turbine generators to create sufficient power. The crew rushes
about preparing for another blast. Even the troopers head gear
is not adequate to protect them from the overwhelming noise of
the monstrous weapon. One troopers bangs his helmet with his
hand in an attempt to stop the ringing.
Today it takes a dedicated 20-ton truck. In three years, there will be a Bradley-mounted design. In 10 or 20, these things would be mounted on helmets to protect individual soldiers.
Stop counting other people's money (CEOs') and rejoice at the progress your side of the war is making.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Yay... finally!!!
Popcorn for everyone!!!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
So the Navy has railguns and the Army now has lasers - the Air force better get quad-damage or else they're going to get pwned.
The High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator project actually shoots stuff
Who wrote that summary, George Bush?
Dolphins drive them trucks?
NEWSFLASH:
Boeing has developed a new squirrel mounted laser. Lasers have been mounted to squirrels and released on the Iranian border. Unfortunatly the squirrels were all captured by iranian police, but not after they fried their eyes out.
Cost? $50 million nuts.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Forget freaking sharks. I want something like this scaled down on top of my car aimed at birds that dare to poop at my car. I want anti-bird defensives that will fry 'em if they dare to do a fly by near my car.
I have 1 point left to give, but there was no option for +1 groan. Good one!
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
Car Wars...screw D&D, that was cool. And then, you know, we all found girls and stuff...but still. Car Wars rocked.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
Oooooooooooooh
i need one of these for the dogs next door.
First, if you don't know about THEL, see this video. Beam weapons aren't a joke any more.
Mobile THEL was a repackaging of the original fixed THEL system into three semitrailers. It's too bulky to deploy and too vulnerable on the ground. This thing is meant to defend against short-ranged mortars, rockets, and artillery. So it has to be sited up near the sharp end. Something more rugged and more mobile is needed.
Now that everyone has seen THEL shooting down rockets, artillery projectiles, and mortar rounds, the name of the game is making it small enough to be useful. This new project is to get something onto a single large truck that will do the job.
...and yet we cannot find Bin Laden, or defeat an enemy working on the cheap while we use $30K missles to blow up a tree. Why can't the world's greatest military power, using the best trained soldiers and the most expensive weapons, not beat an enemy using simple weapons?
What happens when a laser hits something really shiny? Does it bounce off and heat up something else?
Is this a case of billions of investment being defeated by a rag and a can of polish?
No sig today...
The reason Israel is cooperating heavily with the US on this project is because it'd be awesome for taking out the likes of Katyusha rockets as fired by Hezbollah and Hamas into Israel this last few years.
;)
People may whine and bitch about Israel, but let's face it, if Israel can prevent these random cross border attacks it's going to be so much easier brokering and keeping peace deals as it's often been these Katyusha and mortar attacks that have broken countless ceasefire deals.
Perhaps so as not to let Hamas get away with attacks too lightly they could hook the thing up to Gaza's electricity supply so each time it has to fire at a rocket from Gaza it takes the electricity down there for half an hour to recharge
Anti-artillery shell cannon??
The numbers don't look good-- You have to precisely track the shell in flight
with extreme accuracy. Any dust, fog or clouds and it's useless.
Countermeasures are simple and cheap-- smoke, dust, chaff.
And you're a very fragile sitting duck, with your beam revealing your position.
Sounds like a typical Pentagon money-blowing project.
For all of you who dont know the HEMTT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Expanded_Mobili ty_Tactical_Truck/ are 20 ton trucks useful for providing transport capabilities for re-supply of combat vehicles and weapons systems..The HEMTT trucks exist in several configurations:
M977 and M985 cargo trucks carry all types of equipment, especially ammunition. A crane is mounted at the rear of the vehicle.
M978 tanker refuels tactical vehicles and helicopters in forward locations.
M983 tractor tows the trailer-mounted MIM-104 Patriot missile systems.
M983 with 30 KW generator and a crane mounted behind the cab towed the MGM-31 Pershing Erector Laucher in CONUS (a MAN tractor was used in West Germany).
M984 recovery vehicle uses a lift-and-tow system to recover disabled vehicles in two-to-three minutes. It mounts a recovery winch, a crane and a large storage box.
These things have great manuevering capabilities and can knock down several feet thick trees (We used to do it to make shaded parking spots when out on bivouacs.(That and you can make ranger brownies in the Exhaust pipe)
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
...actually shoots stuff...
Stuff as in photons or stuff as in water melons?
For the 2008 production (2009 release date) of the Tango & Cash remake, timed to coincide with that nostalgia-filled movie's 20th anniversary! Wonder if Michael J. Pollard will reprise his role as Owen...
geek. lawyer.
It would be nice to have this under my car hood, with a pop-up cowl, so that it'd be stealth most of the time. Then have it pop up when you want to frag that slow moving Prius going 50 in the passing lane.
Yeah - this would definitely be O.K.
..........FULL STOP.
That'd be fine, because you'd be using the weapons to kill. They're fine with that. The problem would be using the lasers to *blind* those people. That's a violation.
Pack a load of 10 shells, 9 chaff, 1 HE.
First one is intercepted halfway to the laser truck, explodes, deploys chaff on detonation.
Second one is intercepted halfway between previous interception, and laser truck, because truck's radar was impaired by chaff, second one explodes, deploys chaff on detonation, closer to truck.
Lather, rinse, repeat, until the radar's range is too short to give the computer enough time to find an intercept solution.
Cost to attacker: 9, $500 chaff shells, + 1 $2000 HE shell.
Cost to defender: $50 Million laser + whatever else the attacker decides to shell with impunity next.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
"The major problem with rail guns that they have yet to solve is that the rails themselves experience a repulsive force equal to the force accelerating the projectile..."
And how do they intend to "solve" this little conundrum...?
{insert sound of Scottish engineer here}
No sig today...
i do not think 'lasers' will solve iraq. lasers would not have solved vietnam either.
first there are the technical issues. mortars are small fry. they are annoyance weapons to piss off people in the green zone. most people die there from IEDs and suicide bombs, which lasers are absolutely no help against.
to stop suicide bombers and IEDs, you need to have an undersanding of culture, foreign languages, history, sociology, pscyhology, economics, etc.
you have to find out why people are blowing themselves up, why people are planting IEDs, and more importantly, why
others just sit by and watch them do it. then you have to attack those problems at the root.
for example. let us consider the iraqi army. it was disbanded by the USians 'in charge'. this left hundreds of thousands of young, testosterone filled men, with nothing to do all day but sit around and be unemployed. not only that, they had easy access to weapons, and they had the training to use those weapons.
i dont care how many episodes of 'future weapons' you watch or how many truck mounted lasers or how many linux based pilot-less drones you have. none of that will keep you from making dumb decisions like disbanding the iraqi army.
and there were dozens of other decisions made by the 'technologically superior' US that basically did not help the overall situation at all. and many would say the decision to invade at all was a prime example of this problem.
meanwhile we have a massive shortage of people who can speak arabic.
so you argue that lasers are going to help solve iraq. well, they might have some infinitesimally small role to play. but let us simply consider the numbers, the amount of money it requires to develop these lasers, vs the value they will have in iraq. vs, say, the money required to train 10,000 arab translators. and the effect they would have on the ground.
"...to shoot missiles and artillery down." ;)
Well, I guess that once the enemy is throwing their artillery at you, it either means that the gun is broken or that they are seriously out of ammo, in which case, all you got to do is duck, no need for lasers...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
We just need to develop rockets and artillery that come with mirrors...
How the hell is this -1, Funny? I know, I know...I'M NEW HERE! BITE ME!
I dunno much about lasers but it seems logical to assume that if our govt has this mounted on aircract (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/raygun_ju mbo_wants_pork/), then they probably have plans to mount this on attack helos or a sattelite (provided it has enough power) and use it for covert operations.
Could you imagine taking out key insurgents with this type of weapon? All you would need is line-of-sight...Scary...
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
wouldnt the mirror in the laser get damaged if it absorbed ~20%
m l
im pretty sure when i took 3rd yr optics and we made lasers (out of all the bits..) in the lab we used front silvered mirrors and i think they were over 99% reflective. i think more like >99.9%
http://www.rp-photonics.com/dielectric_mirrors.ht
states laser mirrors can reflect over 99.9%
further it mentions 'supermirrors' with 99.9999%
(maby solid state ones might have been but they require a whole different set of tech) lasers werent possible until engineering of mirrors reached this level, although i believe einsteins paper on light where he discussed the three mechanisms of interaction between light and matter was a crucial idea which leads to the laser. so they were theoretically predicted decades before the mirrors were available.
of course they wouldnt last long outside of an extremely clean environment as they are front mirrored. although it might be possible to coat them with something.
wooo! more guns! just what you guys need. you just keep worrying about those terrorists, fear is good for your government!
If the chemicals needed to shoot down your mortars are significantly lighter than the mortars you fire, advantage goes to the guy with the laser. See, war at this scale is all about who can transport the most stuff to the front first. If you have to bring a truckload of mortars to take out one laser truck, all those things that the laser truck "protects" are going to get you.
As it is, this is a great weapon that can be used to suppress insurgencies. Insurgents have the element of surprise, but they generally have shitty transport capabilities and have to haul things up for an attack up very slowly. Like, a guy smuggles in a rocket launcher on a donkey. If you take away the likelihood of success of an occasional rocket attack, you've just defeated, militarily, a huge portion of insurgent strategy.
This makes it far, far easier to impose democracy on new nations, and increases the likelihood that future Iraqs can succeed and much more easily. If we can get something to detect IEDs, we would be golden.
This is my sig.
> If your ashamed to be an American, then America is ashamed to have shed blood for your freedom...nuff said.
Well, I personally don't think Americans fought and died so that we could torture people, or that you speak for the whole country. But that's just me.
And don't give me any flag waving to say that these kinds of gross national failures happen elsewhere or are somehow acceptable. I flew what was probably the biggest damn flag in the state for a good long time.
I don't feel like flying it any more because of all the "patriots" who think that saying "This is the best damn country in the world!" is something you use to excuse problems instead of a reason to acknowledge, fix and rise above them! Dammit, you don't fix things by stuffing your head up your ass! The only way you can NOT feel shame is if you have no damn pride in your country to begin with!
How do you talk the enemy into only shooting rounds off where you have your trucks waiting? It seems if you can convince them to do that, you might be able to convince them to stop shooting at you.
I'm so ashamed.
...against a guerilla army. Just look at how we manage our great miltary toys. To take out a tree, the US not only fires a $30K missle, it has to use up jet fuel, set up 1000s of troops to find the tree, develop a delivery infrastructure that costs millions, etc. All to take out a tree.
Meanwhile the world's greatest army is getting it's ass kicked by minimally trained peasants using ratty AK-47s and scavenged explosives. No fancy training, no AWACs, no hi-tech jets, no body armor, no digital radars, etc. A gun, a grenade, and a burro. It probably costs them $100 to take out one of our vehicles, even less for a soldier. And us? Million$ to destroy one insurgent, and then million$ more to rebuild the damage. This war has been one really piss poor return on investment. I wonder what the monetary breakdown has been so far on how much on average it's cost to kill one insurgent.
Maybe we should start taking bids on miltary actions now and contract stuff out. It would be cheaper.
I would bitch about my tax money going toward this, but really it's not my money paying for it. There has to be some irony to countries like China buying our securities and having them fund crap like this to be used against them at some later date.
Ron Paul needed stat.
Like a laser that can be mounted on a vehicle and detect and destroy improvised roadside bombs? Seems like that is something that we could really use.
but I'd like to understand how are such weapons going to overcome the problem of a reflective surface on the shell? And I don't even mean a silver-based mirror, just simple chrome coating. That would reflect over 99% of the incoming energy. The fact that a laser beam of almost 100% the original strength would hit random targets on the ground is an added bonus. And there are such reflective compounds that would reflect the ray right back at the "sender". Sure, those would reflect less than 99% or the energy, but if a $5 shell can damage a $5.000.000 weapon system, it's well worth the shell being destroyed in the process.
I'm thinking aloud here, guys, cut me some slack, show me how/why am I wrong, if I am.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Oh. They'll run off batteries. I wonder what the power requirements will be, how many shots per charge, and recharge time?
Actually, this could be a boon for developing better batteries, the kind that can be used for electric cars. And, lest we forget, practical hydrogen fuel cells that can keep those batteries charged if not produce enough power to eliminate the need for batteries in the first place.
The possibilities for spin-off tech may be more interesting than the laser cannons or rail guns.
Imagine the laser gets smaller and becomes shoulder held. If the people on the otherside get one of these cuties you can kiss the aviation sector goodbye. Better start selling your stocks in aviation and aviation insurance.
O this learning! What a thing it is - William Shakespeare
how sixties...
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
How is the parent post Flamebait? The post was not insulting or bating in any way and expressed a valid point. According to the CDC, Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children ages 1-14, with Motor vehicle accidents as the first. Unintentional firearms do not make the top ten list till the 10-14 age group, and even then are only at 9, behind suffocation.
Further more, the parent post does make a good suggestion, having the NRA teach gun safety would be a great step to reducing accidental and purposeful firearms injuries and deaths. Too many kids nowadays see guns as either something to be feared or else "toys" for adults. They should be taught that guns are nothing to fear but that they are definitely not toys. They are a tools and like all tools, improper care when handling them can cause people to get hurt or even killed. Of course there are a few adults who could learn that lesson as well.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the (supposed) good of its victims may be the most oppressive
The hemitt.
Best Slashdot Co
You're already Mod'd up, but I would give you all 5 of my Mod points. I wish you hadn't posted AC, for you deserve to have such an astute observation tied to your person.
Regardless, I salute you sir!! Keep up the good fight!
Opinion:=TMyOpinion.Create(Me);
No visible lazer beam! come on you scientists, I want my lazer weapons to emit a visible lazer beam! it's so cool!
Another poster said that destroying the laser would be as simple as using countermeasures and calculating its location by following the beam. This may be true, but it would add a tactical element to attacking a coalition base- far from the fire-and-run-away method employed today. Since the laser is truck mounted, I wonder if it can move while firing.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
The satellite system has excellent targetting capability.
I mean the Japanese have used these against Godzilla since what, the sixties? I think it was created to fight Mothra first, though.
What about grotesquely mutated humans in multi-nippled metal casings with grating robotic voices?
We o-bey! We will ex-ter-min-ate!
-b.
-b.
But exactly what freedom is being shed for at the moment? Heck, even 'nam had more real reasons for backing it (supporting France who has been a major ally). WRT Iraq, GWB had NONE to invade and occupy. The UN had been allowed in and saw that there was no WMD. If you wish to pull the card about a despot, fine. But why him? There were FAR worse out there. In particular, North Korea. In fact, whenever Bush mentions that this is about putting democracy everywhere, then I have to wonder why the verbal attacks on Iran and Venezueala. Both of them have elected leaders which the UN vetted the election process.
BTW, as to your freedom crap, I have had relatives in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean, 'Nam, and Iraq I. Those that are living (3) have objected to this war as being a waste of ppl, time, and money. They sole republican has changed to ind. and pushes dems. And believe me, NONE of them think that this is about Freedom or threat to us. NADA, ZIP, ZERO ZILCH. They, like the ppl that you knock, join many other patriotic Americans in thinking that this was an atrocity that is being committed by a bunch of chicken hawks, joining the ranks of many Ex-Generals and other officers.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Wasn't there an episode with a truck-mounted superlaser or something? :)
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
Chery is a Chinese company whose vehicles will be sold shortly by Chrysler.
It is now, but only through the idiots in the white house. I did not suggest that we should pull out of Iraq at this time. In fact, I am one of the few ppl that I know that believe that we should allow the surge some time to see if it will work. Personally, I doubt it will. But I believe that gates and Petraus are well above most of the idiots that are/were in the white house (cheney, rove, rumsfeld, etc). One of the issues with AQ is that they thrive where there is a vacuum in established politics. But, W. has done more for AQ in his 7 years. For starters he did not listen to those in the know about the coming 9/11. Nor, did he listen to the CIA when they advised against Iraq. All in all, W. has done more for AQ that ALL of the top AQ has.That is why they are trying to attack us now.
You were questioning the patriotism of others on this list who you know NOTHING about. I have known a few officers who have been to Iraq and they tell me that we need to pull out. These guys were in the thick of things (trees ), but also had access to other information (the forest). Your questioning other's patriotism is no different than Bush's "you are either with us or against us" crap. Most of those who want us out of Iraq are JUST as patriotic AND just as American as you or I. They simply believe that we have lost the Iraqi war. Considering that many of the top brass believe that now, they are no different.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
That wasn't a satellite. It was a ship in low-earth orbit. They referenced it being launched from a B1. Though an un-manned satellite would make far more sense, I would have thought.
:)
I watched the film last night, funnily enough
Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Number Two: Sea Bass.
Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
Number Two: They're mutated sea bass.
Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
Number Two: Absolutely.
Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.
I've been at maxed karma for so long now, I really don't need any more. As for my ideas, I'd rather people didn't know who I am. That way, they evaluate my ideas on their own merits and not because of how they think of me. Not that I'm famous, but I like to think I'd be as recognizable as, say, AKAImBatman on Slashdot if I wrote under my own account more often.
Anyhow, this is better if it helps people take my ideas as their own. I write to persuade, so "plagiarizing" my thoughts is the very best thing you can do with them, because it means that you agree with me very thoroughly.
What if you fill the air with chaff before you fire the real bombs?
One air burst which releases 10,000 little pieces of tin foil should keep the laser tracker busy for a while (and only cost a couple of dollars).
No sig today...
Here's an idea -- what about orbital lasers made out of ice? You could use solar mirrors & a slight spin to melt and fusion-purify asteroidal ice or planetary ring ice and make some whopper of a giant solid laser with even larger solar mirrors to pump it. A five-kilometer solid laser perhaps? If you made it large enough I bet you could get a lot of useful life out of it before you ran out of thermal mass and went liquid. Would be useful as a power source for interstellar spacecraft; a stationary laser at some appropriate solar orbit of arbitrary size, heating reaction mass for a spacecraft, then using simple photonic reflection when that ran out. Could do a fair approximation of C I'd think, but blimey I'd be in trouble for an idea on how to slow it down.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
You can get mirrors that are manufactured for a specific wavelength that are 99.98% reflective. They use them in lasers, especially Helium Neon lasers, since the gain in the tube is low, without precision mirrors the laser would never work to begin with. And I'm looking at a catalogue here by Edmund Optics, and their gold mirrors are 94-97% reflective for wavelengths 650 nm and above. The 1" gold mirror is $1,239... so yes, I'd like to see a brilliant military planner demand that all missiles and mortars be precision coated with gold. :-) Since any of the laser systems used to shoot down projectiles will likely be operating at infrared wavelengths, probably 1064 nm, since that's typical for a Nd:YAG laser (or for a COIL laser at 1.315 m), making a reflective coating for that wavelength, even if reflects only 80%, could be enough to render a system like this useless if they can't increase the beam power.
But since most projectiles aren't coated with anything, the cost of trying to counter a laser defense system would be very prohibitive and would only be worthwhile on the most expensive weapons, like ICBMs and cruise missiles.
I never thought I'd be seeing Prism Tanks so early though, I was expecting these things to come out 10 years from now, not now.
Don't you brainwashed idiots remember when they tested this on the Shuttle Columbia!