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US Navy Close To On-Ship Laser Cannons

Posted by samzenpus on from the warm-up-the-wave-motion-gun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Office of Naval Research and industry partner Northrop Grumman said they successfully tested for the first time an on-board laser defense system known as the Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD), using it to destroy a small target vessel. The test actually accomplished several other benchmarks, including integrating MLD with a ship's radar and navigation system, and firing an electric laser weapon from a moving platform at-sea in a humid environment."

2 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. So Expensive by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad we didn't cut a penny from the 2011 military budget. Then we wouldn't have these extra boat lasers around that we don't need, along with all the thousands of other defense contractor welfare projects we've run up $TRILLIONS in debt to pay for.

    Instead we cut 1% of the Federal budget, from women, children and the poor. Why protect them with social programmes when we can defend them with extra weapons that kill other people, or sit unused, instead?

    --

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    make install -not war

  2. enema + dvork by decora · · Score: 5, Funny

    i think the internet has officially acheived its original purpose.

    to create a discussion thread that goes from laser weapons, to enemas, to dvorak keyboard arguments, without any intervening replies.

    absolutely unbelievable. bravo to you, sirs. bravo.