Ray Guns. Today.
That's right folks -- the United States of America has accomplished awesomeness yet again.
Yes folks, we have invented the ray gun: In tests earlier this month at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Boeing's Advanced Tactical Laser -- a modified C-130H aircraft -- "fired its high-energy chemical laser through its beam control system. The beam control system acquired a ground target and guided the laser beam to the target, as directed by ATL's battle management system."
"By firing the laser through the beam control system for the first time, the ATL team has begun to demonstrate the functionality of the entire weapon system integrated aboard the aircraft," Boeing exec Scott Fancher said, in a statement. The WIRED article above isn't too keen on the ray gun (seems as if it will allow us to do nefarious things... like destroy enemy equipment without actually engaging): For example, they say it can either destroy a vehicle completely, or just damage the tires to immobilize it. The illustration shows a theoretical 26-second engagement in which the beam deftly destroys "32 tires, 11 Antennae, 3 Missile Launchers, 11 EO devices, 4 Mortars, 5 Machine Guns" -- while avoiding harming a truckload of refugees and the soldiers guarding them. Yeah. That's totally not cool. Disabling tanks without civilian casualties... how absurd.
The New Scientist has all the "how tos" and such. Not only is there a massive cool factor in this, it's a huge leap in how American's military can project force and protect lives.
|
 |
JTylerBallance 
2 Comments:
While we all can thank Ronald Reagan for pushing the "Star Wars" initiatives that led directly to this and the directed energy weapons being developed by Raytheon and others, this wonderful achievement in weapon technology should also draw our attention to the need to:
REPEAL THE WAR POWERS ACT!
Congress abdicated its role to check the power of the Executive during the post 9/11 hysteria. The best way to regain the balance of power between our three branches of government is to repeal the War Powers Act and insist that no military force will EVER again be deployed without a declaration of war by our Congress.
The war powers of the President have been abused by every President since Truman deployed our military to Korea as a, "U.N. Police Action."
Those who see this latest development in weapon technology are right to be wary of those who will wield this power.
We want the United States to be the most powerful force on Earth, but it is up to us, "We the People..." to ensure that we remain a force for good and not have our military become a tool for multinational corporate interests.
--
Whoopsie. Smidge late on that one.
12,000 pounds? In a C130? Oh that's nimble.
Post a Comment
Home