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OMG the US Air Force can fire Lasers at targets!!!

Tilpots

Tilpots

macrumors 601
Original poster
Apr 19, 2006
4,195
72
Carolina Beach, NC
Air Force, Boeing test laser weapon

Video and article.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A plane at Kirtland Air Force base has been blasting some targets at White Sands Missile range without bullets or bombs. Instead, the plane employs a laser as its weapon of choice.

The Air Force has just released the video the futuristic weapon at work.

This is the first time the weapon was successfully fired at a target with the intent of damaging it.
Click to expand...

Holy! This is exciting and scary at the same time. From the video, I couldn't detect a laser visually, the car just started burning. :eek:

That's amazing to me. I know we've had powerful lasers around for awhile, but I've never, ever seen one shot from a moving plane with the sole intent of damaging it's target. Now I have, and that could be one super nasty weapon...
 
Makes me think of this:

dr-evil-photo.jpg
 
acurafan said:
you're not supposed to see the laser - and no, there isn't any sounds either - this isn't the cartoons!
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Thanks for clarifying. But I coulda sworn I heard Elmer Fudd signing "Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit..." when they showed the shot of the plane.:p
 
Dr. Evil has ruined the word laser for me. We need a new one.
Suggestions?
 
So the its main purpose is to shoot down missiles. Now missile makers are going to add a mirror coating to the exterior of there missiles, effectively making them immune to lasers. There'll be a lot of collateral damage as non-reflective objects around the missile are burned. Whole flocks of migrating geese would falls from the sky, cooked extra crispy.:p
 
velocityg4 said:
Only if billions are built secretly and released world wide simultaneously so that people can buy them before any government has a chance to outlaw them.:D
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Then someone would have to invent some sort of personal anti-laser suit just so we can step outside our heavily-fortified houses. Since energy-based force fields are not an option (yet), it would have to be something that could both insulate the wearer from heat and reflect the majority of the beam.

In short, we'd end up wearing more mirrors than Lady Gaga. :D
 
Counterfit said:
While this didn't shoot at a ground target, it did hit a moving target while in flight.
Click to expand...

While that technology sounds promising, I'm a little concerned that it has to hit the ICBM shortly after launch. These 747's would either have to be in the air at all times or spread throughout the globe, ready to go in a heartbeat.

Sounds like this aircraft should be due for a test by the end of this year. I wonder if we'll hear the results?
 
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