Bob, you said this: "Sad to see so much money being spent on weapons rather than on helping people survive."
While RacetrackOwner's retort may have been a little harsh, it was 100% true. You are just showing your lack of intelligence. There are certain problems that will never ever be solved through diplomacy, even though diplomacy should always be at least attempted. Blindly believing it will work eventually was France's folly in WW2. In fact, France still blindly believed in a diplomatic solution with Hitler WHILE he was invading! Some people are just morons, and there is no excusing their ignorance.
Now back to the statement I quoted from you... this system being developed is NOT a weapon. In fact, it is a DEFENSE system. So your complaint isn't even relevant here. Go cry about a tree or something.
To some of the other comments/questions regarding technical aspects:
The newer systems under development (HELLADS) do NOT require double-decker bus-sized batteries, and in fact are extremely small and portable. They can hit anything down to the size of RPG's (at least), and this has been tested flawlessly. They are very fast, although I'm not sure how fast. I saw once somewhere that THEL could take out 10+ targets per minute, and that was a decade ago. There is no "video game junkie" pointing and clicking at targets on a screen. It is 100% automatic. This is very old technology. Look up CIWS. It's been around for decades now, and works well, although it's a projectile based system, and has a very short range. Finally, There is no way you can mistake a missile, mortar, rpg, etc for a plane or vice versa. They aren't even in the same league. If this is also designed to take out enemy aircraft, then we have to make sure our IFF system is working. We lost at least one plane in Iraq due to a failed IFF transponder. However, it isn't the laser system that is the problem here....since it wasn't even involved.
As for the Star Wars program.....you're WAY off-base on that one. Star Wars was a nickname given to President Reagan's 1980's plan to develop and deploy space-based weapons and defense systems. Lasers were to be eventually deployed as well. The USA and USSR signed a treaty banning missile defense systems (this is not the same as the treaty banning the militarization of space, which China has just ruined by testing an anti-satellite missile). Both countries kept their word on the missile defense ban, until the USSR stopped existing. That treaty is no longer valid, and no treaty has been signed with any other nation regarding missile defense systems. Russia is included in the "any other nation" category, since it is NOT the USSR. Russia was recently invited to enjoy protection under our missile defense shield and declined, opting instead to kick and scream some more and throw an international fit. Wah.
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Bob, you said this: "Sad to see so much money being spent on weapons rather than on helping people survive."
While RacetrackOwner's retort may have been a little harsh, it was 100% true. You are just showing your lack of intelligence. There are certain problems that will never ever be solved through diplomacy, even though diplomacy should always be at least attempted. Blindly believing it will work eventually was France's folly in WW2. In fact, France still blindly believed in a diplomatic solution with Hitler WHILE he was invading! Some people are just morons, and there is no excusing their ignorance.
Now back to the statement I quoted from you... this system being developed is NOT a weapon. In fact, it is a DEFENSE system. So your complaint isn't even relevant here. Go cry about a tree or something.
To some of the other comments/questions regarding technical aspects:
The newer systems under development (HELLADS) do NOT require double-decker bus-sized batteries, and in fact are extremely small and portable. They can hit anything down to the size of RPG's (at least), and this has been tested flawlessly. They are very fast, although I'm not sure how fast. I saw once somewhere that THEL could take out 10+ targets per minute, and that was a decade ago. There is no "video game junkie" pointing and clicking at targets on a screen. It is 100% automatic. This is very old technology. Look up CIWS. It's been around for decades now, and works well, although it's a projectile based system, and has a very short range. Finally, There is no way you can mistake a missile, mortar, rpg, etc for a plane or vice versa. They aren't even in the same league. If this is also designed to take out enemy aircraft, then we have to make sure our IFF system is working. We lost at least one plane in Iraq due to a failed IFF transponder. However, it isn't the laser system that is the problem here....since it wasn't even involved.
As for the Star Wars program.....you're WAY off-base on that one. Star Wars was a nickname given to President Reagan's 1980's plan to develop and deploy space-based weapons and defense systems. Lasers were to be eventually deployed as well. The USA and USSR signed a treaty banning missile defense systems (this is not the same as the treaty banning the militarization of space, which China has just ruined by testing an anti-satellite missile). Both countries kept their word on the missile defense ban, until the USSR stopped existing. That treaty is no longer valid, and no treaty has been signed with any other nation regarding missile defense systems. Russia is included in the "any other nation" category, since it is NOT the USSR. Russia was recently invited to enjoy protection under our missile defense shield and declined, opting instead to kick and scream some more and throw an international fit. Wah.