Slashdot Mirror
Boeing Demonstrates Drone-Killing Laser
An anonymous reader writes: Boeing has successfully tested a new weapon system that tracks unmanned aircraft and shoots them down with a laser. The system is surprisingly small — it can be transported in a few medium-sized boxes, and two techs can set it up in minutes. The laser needs just a few seconds of continuous [contact] to set a drone aflame, and the tracking gimbal is precise enough to target specific parts of a drone. "Want to zap the tail so it crashes and then you can go retrieve the mostly intact drone and see who is trying to spy on you? Can do. Think it's carrying explosives and you want to completely destroy it? No problem." The laser is controlled with custom targeting software that runs on a laptop, with help from an Xbox 360 controller. Boeing expects the laser system to be ready for sale in the next year or two.
You are all Drones. Drones make Rrrrrrrrr. Rrrrrrrrrrrr Drones rrrrrrrrrrr! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr make the drones. YOU DRONES!!!
"Shooting drones down will not solve the problem."
Shooting drones down will solve the problem of having drones in the air. That's the problem this device is designed to solve. None of the other things you mention come under the remit of this device, and the device was not intended to address or solve them. This is just the latest in anti-aircraft evolution.
mozzies are way more annoying than drones
Cue the knuckleheads with their "just put mirrors on the dronze herp derp!"
Mirrors aren't 100% efficient reflecting all wavelengths. Mirrors are heavy; a mirror covered drone won't work very well.
it can be transported in a few medium-sized boxes"
How big is a medium-sized box?
Rosanna Arquette or John Edwards
This device seems to be an adaptation of the mostly-failed experiments to knock down mortars and grad-style rockets with lasers. Those systems only worked if the projectile was following a previously-known flight path and the laser was set up to protect that specific path, because they couldn't target fast enough. Real-world mortars are less predicable, but drones are slow enough that the targeting seems to work on them.
It is rather convenient for the researchers that a slower, more media-visible target for their mortar-laser was developed!
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I'll stand by my previous post that #4 birdshot is still more fun, plus it it mirror resistant.
The mirror coating is barely reflective to a laser, and will burn off just about as quickly as the camouflage coating which you propose. What is needed to have any real effect is an ablative laser coating which continues to be reflective as it is burned away. AFAIK no such material exists as of yet, in spite of being prophesied in roll-playing games (i.e. Battletech.)
However, yes, there will be some reflections while the target is being cooked, and if it is at low altitudes that could be quite dangerous to any spectators.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
... when they figure out how to make it into a bug zapper.