It's a laser. Focal length is irrelevant, isn't it? Aim certainly is, and the military know how to make aiming systems that change the point of target really, really fast. If the terrorists were playing ping-pong, they could track and burn the ping-pong ball in flight, and miss everything else.
Indeed, I follow you. The rattling of a nuclear sabre by some tinpot dictator with a large, goose-stepping army may include a declaration of war.
If that war can be won by someone else flying a few B2's overhead in a "training exercise" (expending zero munitions) and the very public cancellation of a Minuteman ICBM test ("Didn't want to scare anyone there") then that war can be won if said TD puts his head under his wing as a result. It's a war carried out, and won, by superior firepower that hasn't fired a single shot or killed a single person.
Provided, of course, that the antagonist's opponent actually does have value as a deterrent, and said TD isn't utterly, barking-at-the-moon, as a hatter, toys-in-the-attic, doormouse-in-the-teapot, completely and totally insane.
but couldnt this be easily defeated with a few large passively or actively cooled mirrors? or heck its just energy, so couldnt it be absorbed by a solar cell on the receiving end?
Interestingly enough, cloaked ships would be impervious to IR Lasers.
Expect the science of Meta Materials to be furthered in leaps and bounds shortly.
Course manouvers. Optical cloaking doesn't mean invisible to detection, nor does it mean it won't absorb more photons than it can dissipate. Aim where you think it is, it'll burn.
Jet fuel will spin generator turbines as easily as nuclear power will. Nuclear generation of electricity's advantage is in duration and fuel-energy density over time, not necessarily peak power. Both have to spin generators (ignoring the off-beat possibility of ship-borne MHD).
They could be waving the missile at us, while one of their submarines (the SK admit they've lost track of a couple) could deliver the weapon from sea, via torpedo or even a little rubber boat. You don't need a lot of accuracy to take out a major port.
Expect a lot of P3's (or the modern equivalent) in the air soon.
And my personal fav, the Thunderbolt II - much more fondly known as the Warthog. God what a delicious tidy package of mayhem it packs....
And what a tremendously ugly thing it was to behold. Its cannon could stop it in mid-air from the recoil, though, and you really, really didn't want to be in a tank if you saw one.
What makes you think they won't name the series of Laser gunboats after sharks?
Because the only cool names in the military are on the unit patches the soldiers wear. Everything else is an acronym for something that sounds like a Terminator T-1000 accessory.
Some of those acronyms are pretty uber, too. I used to work at Aames Research Center on Moffett Field, Ca. Every day I drove past a sign that read FASOTRAGRABRUPAC*. Yes, it all made sense (the sky was full of P3 O'Brian Subroutine Chasers (as we called them) and this was their training venue. Infinite touch-and-goes...)
Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Pacific Fleet. The acronym, while nearly as long, was much more fun to pronounce.
Focused? Perhaps. But you might like to experiment with a laser pointer through a (say) common magnifying lens, and see how much it bends. The result might surprise you. (I've done this myself, and was surprised.)
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It's a laser. Focal length is irrelevant, isn't it? Aim certainly is, and the military know how to make aiming systems that change the point of target really, really fast. If the terrorists were playing ping-pong, they could track and burn the ping-pong ball in flight, and miss everything else.
Indeed, I follow you. The rattling of a nuclear sabre by some tinpot dictator with a large, goose-stepping army may include a declaration of war.
If that war can be won by someone else flying a few B2's overhead in a "training exercise" (expending zero munitions) and the very public cancellation of a Minuteman ICBM test ("Didn't want to scare anyone there") then that war can be won if said TD puts his head under his wing as a result. It's a war carried out, and won, by superior firepower that hasn't fired a single shot or killed a single person.
Provided, of course, that the antagonist's opponent actually does have value as a deterrent, and said TD isn't utterly, barking-at-the-moon, as a hatter, toys-in-the-attic, doormouse-in-the-teapot, completely and totally insane.
but couldnt this be easily defeated with a few large passively or actively cooled mirrors? or heck its just energy, so couldnt it be absorbed by a solar cell on the receiving end?
No.
Interestingly enough, cloaked ships would be impervious to IR Lasers.
Expect the science of Meta Materials to be furthered in leaps and bounds shortly.
Course manouvers. Optical cloaking doesn't mean invisible to detection, nor does it mean it won't absorb more photons than it can dissipate. Aim where you think it is, it'll burn.
It could obliterate small sea birds and butterflies too. That's not the primary target, though, so they weren't mentioned.
Geez, the capacitor whine as those babies charge up would be awesome -- like a nuclear-powered Theramin.
I have the sudden urge to re-read all my old Doc Smith / Lensmen novels.
Jet fuel will spin generator turbines as easily as nuclear power will. Nuclear generation of electricity's advantage is in duration and fuel-energy density over time, not necessarily peak power. Both have to spin generators (ignoring the off-beat possibility of ship-borne MHD).
...it's like the old urban legend about how NASA spent a heap of money developing a pen that writes in space and the Russians simply used a pencil...
Grrr....
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
They could be waving the missile at us, while one of their submarines (the SK admit they've lost track of a couple) could deliver the weapon from sea, via torpedo or even a little rubber boat. You don't need a lot of accuracy to take out a major port.
Expect a lot of P3's (or the modern equivalent) in the air soon.
It depends on which ship has the slightly-less reflective end.
And my personal fav, the Thunderbolt II - much more fondly known as the Warthog. God what a delicious tidy package of mayhem it packs....
And what a tremendously ugly thing it was to behold. Its cannon could stop it in mid-air from the recoil, though, and you really, really didn't want to be in a tank if you saw one.
What makes you think they won't name the series of Laser gunboats after sharks?
Because the only cool names in the military are on the unit patches the soldiers wear. Everything else is an acronym for something that sounds like a Terminator T-1000 accessory.
Some of those acronyms are pretty uber, too. I used to work at Aames Research Center on Moffett Field, Ca. Every day I drove past a sign that read FASOTRAGRABRUPAC*. Yes, it all made sense (the sky was full of P3 O'Brian Subroutine Chasers (as we called them) and this was their training venue. Infinite touch-and-goes...)
Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Pacific Fleet.
The acronym, while nearly as long, was much more fun to pronounce.
P3's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-3_Orion
Submarine named after a shark. Came to a rather bad end...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)
Focused? Perhaps.
But you might like to experiment with a laser pointer through a (say) common magnifying lens, and see how much it bends. The result might surprise you. (I've done this myself, and was surprised.)
Curtis LeMay had something to say about 'innocents' during war.
Of course, he was a psychopath...
Wrong. He was a high-functioning sociopath. do your research!
SK has lost track of a couple of NK submarines, according to other sources.
Yes, but who might have a grudge against Egypt?
You can't fight in here -- this is the War Room!
A bit of ricin could cause death by push pin. It's been implicated in at least one murder by umbrella. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_umbrella
Not directly, but one of these can keep the problem from recurring: http://bit.ly/10Navr9
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Call Gregory
...When they find out that it's just as easy to stick an arc-welder to the end of the arm and crap out metal instead of plastic...
It's been done, and demo'd. Stainless. I'm not posting a link.
A friend of mine saw a demonstration of a prototype 3D printer that works in stainless steel. Additive process.
Keyboards are cheaper than your time spent cleaning them.
Sorry you lost control of your toy, CIA.
You are permitted to read, but not to erase.