Slashdot Mirror
US Military Stepping Up Use of Directed Energy Weapons
An anonymous reader writes: At a conference on Tuesday, U.S. officials explained that all branches of the military would be increasing their use of lasers and other directed energy weapons. Lieutenant General William Etter said, "Directed energy brings the dawn of an entirely new era in defense." The Navy's laser deployment test has gone well, and they're working on a new prototype laser in the 100-150 kilowatt range. "[Navy Secretary Ray] Mabus said Iran and other countries were already using lasers to target ships and commercial airliners, and the U.S. military needed to accelerate often cumbersome acquisition processes to ensure that it stayed ahead of potential foes."
The summary probably should have linked to this article:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/05/18/1553206/navys-new-laser-weapon-hype-or-reality
When you've done the amount of ham fisted nation building and interfering as the USA has done since WW2 you're going to make enemies that you need to defend yourself against.
Anyway, a common enemy either real of imaginary is an age old method of taking the mind of the people off of internal matters. The Romans were doing it, never mind the USA, and todays best practitioners are Putin and the fat kid running north korea.
No, more like nuclear bombs. Even if you're outside the zone of blast effects, you'll still receive plenty of undirected thermal radiation.
It's funny that you blame America for invasion.
1) North Korea with china invaded south Korea.
2) France asked America to help in Vietnam which we did.
3) reagan tried to stop massacre in Libya, but showed yellow belly when we were attacked.
4)we did go into Panama but only to stop noreiga. We also invaded Grenada to stop a coup that had ussr, North Koreans, and Libyan soldiers helping
5) at end of cold war, we, as part of UN, stepped into eastern Europe to stop the genocide that was going on.
6) as part of UN, we stopped Iraq invasion/occupation of kuwait
7) we invade and leave Afghanistan ( too early ) to take out AQ for bombing America and European targets
8) we unfairly invade/occupy Iraq.
9) we reoccupy Afghanistan to help their gov. Stop Taliban.
10) we help Europe invade Libya, but we had to be pushed hard to do it.
11) we were going to go into syria to stop their chemical weapons but Russia, china Europe, and GOP push Obama to accept a deal in which Syria/Russia announce all chem plants and will destroy them
12) ISIS formed and America staying out. Then ISIS captured chemical weapons that Russia/Syria said that they did not have. So we start supporting various groups, with Europe pushing America to invade.
13) Russia invades Crimea, America does nothing.
14) Russia invades Ukraine and then America pushes Europe for sanctions.
15) America pushed for sanctions on Iran to get a nuke deal. However, middle East and many European not happy with deal.
And yet, other than second invasion of Iraq, America has only responded to events that others did. In many cases, it was Europe pushing America that lead to military actions.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.