Concept flight testing for combat laser

[terryoh]

Concept flight testing for combat laser

Boeing has begun flight testing in New Mexico of the concept of an aircraft-mounted tactical combat laser that could eventually be used against ground targets.

The low-power tests at White Sands Missile Range involve a laser mounted on a belly of a C-130 and are part of the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration.

The low-power solid state laser is a stand-in for the high-power chemical laser designers believe can be deployed to attack ground targets, particularly in crowded urban settings or against moving targets where a high degree of precision is required.

The oxygen-iodine chemical beam produces an effect similar to a blow torch that can easily cut through metal, and is effective as distances up to 9 miles, making it possible to be used both out of sight and earshot of the enemy.

Boeing said in a release that the beam is precise enough to hit the tire of a moving vehicle without risking a hit on the fuel tank or passenger compartment.

The chemical laser was fired for the first at a site in Albuquerque last month and will continue ground tests through the fall. It will be installed in a small turret on the C-130 next year for mission simulation flight tests.

[zhalcyon]

Yay! Star Wars is slowly coming to life! Hahahahaha

[Oni Kaze]

I think i watched something about this on the military channel a few months ago~ the laser cut through a steel plate like it was a piece of paper...

[SuperJongMan]

Sweet, I want a laser gun in the future. Does it make cool beeping high pitch sounds like ppeewww ppeeeww? pew pew pew pew pew pow!

[AznSniper783]

Sick!!! It's gonna be like the clone wars, and they're gonna make ball shaped turrets that people sit in that hang off of the plane too...Man that would be cool

[LudaChris23]

Maybe we'll get force shields too?

[jonahlee]

Wow, the weapons keeping getting better, but they don't work against insurgents. Superior firepower really works best in a conventional war, and those don't really seem to happen much anymore.

[predatorprey]

Wow, the weapons keeping getting better, but they don't work against insurgents. Superior firepower really works best in a conventional war, and those don't really seem to happen much anymore.

It does still work if you use it. Only problem is we're fighting a PC war where lawyers are more important than generals.

[jonahlee]

I am sure the troops on the frontline really agree with that.

When you don't know who the enemy is, it is much more difficult to use weapons like this unless you are fine with killing innocent civilians, and with the amount of Iraqi's we have killed in this war so far, it doesn't seem like we really do care all that much.

Actually with this administration it is not lawyers who are more important than generals, but the opinions of Rumsfeld and Cheney without the miltary knowledge to back it up.