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Laser Takes Out Truck Engine From a Mile Away

Posted by Soulskill on from the all-it-needs-is-an-orbital-targeting-platform-and-we-can-make-popcorn dept.

MutualFun (1730480) writes Aerospace company Lockheed Martin has used a laser to obliterate the engine of a small truck from more than a mile away. (Finally, Star Wars is making a comeback!) The company says, "The demonstration marked the first field testing of an integrated 30-kilowatt, single-mode fiber laser weapon system prototype. Through a technique called spectral beam combining, multiple fiber laser modules form a single, powerful, high-quality beam that provides greater efficiency and lethality than multiple individual 10-kilowatt lasers used in other systems."

6 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. One million dollars by danbert8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But can they be mounted on sharks? That is the real question...

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    1. Re:One million dollars by Megane · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sharks, hell, where's the popcorn?

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  2. Re:how much it took by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    They should do some tests to see how many seconds a 120mm shell fired from an M1A1 at ~1700m/s needs to be in contact with the truck to disable it.

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  3. Terminator at gun shop... by tekrat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Terminator: Phased plasma rifle in the 50-watt range.
    Owner: Hey, just what you see here pal!
    Terminator : Uzi 9 millimeter
    Owner: You really know your guns, this baby is perfect for home defense....

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  4. Re:how much it took by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Paint it white (specifically, something with high albedo in whatever frequency range the attacker favors) and you can probably increase that time by a factor of ten.

    Well won't you be embarrassed when you actually click on the article and note the color of the target vehicle.

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  5. Re:how much it took by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're limiting your thinking to the short term. Expand it out a decade or two and try to picture what the tech can evolve into.

    Imagine a satellite ( or something like the ISS ) based weapon that will fire an invisible high-kilowatt ( or even megawatt ) beam on any target it can see from orbit. Maybe combine a few of these satellites onto the same target for even more power output.

    Then realize you can pretty much incinerate any human target on the planet, instantly. From orbit. Crank the power output up enough and you can do the same with aircraft, other satellites, light vehicles, ICBM's, etc. The puppet you installed during your regime change a decade ago giving you shit ? No problem. Hope they remember to wear their SPF-10000 today . . . . :| Those pesky whistleblowers taking refuge in a non-extradition country ? Pffft. No problem. Start some wildfires, disable power grids, use your imagination.

    On the ground, the target will just heat up, catch fire and die horribly. No collateral damage, nor explanation as to wtf just happened.

    Is the tech clumsy today ? Sure it is. All tech starts that way. Compare computers from 20-30 years ago with what is common today if you want to see tech evolution in action.