Seeing a
Boeing 747 destroy a liquid-fueled ballistic missile with a megawatt-class laser is undoubtedly one of the tech highlights of the year so far. Unfortunately, as impressive as the demonstration was, it's unlikely to be militarized in its current state. While the Air Force's chief of staff, General Norton Schwartz, called the demonstration "a magnificent technical achievement," he has no intention of introducing the fat tub of chemical goo into the theater of war. Solid state lasers are the future "coin of the realm," according to Schwartz, not Boeing's chemical laser which he claims, "does not represent something that is operationally viable." Of course, the chemical core of the laser was just a single component of the ALTB that managed to track, target, and destroy a moving projectile from an airborne platform. And while the technology might not be viable for broad deployment, that doesn't mean that it won't be
fitted into a special forces AC-130 Gunship for covert operations until solid state lasers (currently
limited to about 100kW) achieve megawatt status. Just saying.
posted February 24th 2010 2:31AM
So... no sharks with laser beams attached to their heads?
damn.
@SonofUgly
"Mr. President, we must not allow, a Laser Shark gap!"
I bet professor Hathaway could find a way to achieve a megawatt out of a solid state laser. He would need to have a crack team of college students though.
A... skinny galactic penis?
Oooh Can I have one of those for my Smart Car ? I'll be not be able to get in the car after that and it's not, let's face it, very useful but sooo coool !
I wonder how much of our money did they piss away on that
@Post31
Entire Social Security fund for the next 50 years.
@Post31 Well, like TFA said, it's more than just one thing that was developed. There is an entire suite of technologies that were researched and developed. Waste exists by God, but nothing new is ever created without SOME waste.
Besides, it's a freaking cool laser...I'll take that over your retirement check.
I'm sure they are cooking something else behind our backs...
Late night picture swap!! I saw that.
Oh, yes they did.
Are we going to be hearing "Enemy Laser AC-130 Above" in mw3?
If so, epic.
@Erb
Michael Bay doesnt read Engadget.
@KGB
erm, what exactly does Michael Bay have to do with MW3?
@noodles2k
Durrr.... i was thinking of Transformers 3 for some reason.
@Erb RAMIREZ GET THE BIG ASS LAZER
@Erb Pfft, no laser is a match to my gangsta riot shield skills; and here's hoping the laser isn't fast enough to take out a locked on stinger missile.
Shame on General Norton. He should know better. The more lasers the better even if they are chemical ones, everyone knows that! lasers are cool, especially when put in flying things. I want my x-wing and this sort of talk is not going to help get it to market any faster....
I expected "fitted into a special forces AC-130 Gunship" to link to something that had to do with AC-130s... AC-130s with lasers added would be make them even more badass.
@noname the original source article states that the plane used was a C-130 Hercules
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/atl_test_vid/
Phallus!
Seems like they could combine this with mosquito -tracking lasers and zap bullets out of the air. Humm...
AFRL has been working on this since I was in the Air Force, and that was the very early 1980's. At this rate they ought to be just about ready for battle with the Klingons.
"not operationally viable"
Right... Who knows? The next time Bin Laden comes out of his hole a giant laser beam from the sky tries to zap him.
Then again, playing whack-a-Bin-Laden with airborne lazors sounds fun.
This isn't a fact, but a political game of favorites. Schwartz is a politician in a uniform and I am willing to bet that he is getting a fair sized kickback from a Boeing competitor (Raytheon, Lockheed, etc) developing an SSL weapon to be introduced in the future. This kind of thing happens all the time in military contracting.
@kobioshi
Uhh, completely ignoring the fact that he is right.
Dammit... now I'll need to come up with an alternate method of filling my evil professors house with popped popcorn.
This just means the program went black.
OK, maybe it's not ready for primetime as a FLYING weapon, but can you imagine batteries of these deployed on the ground around NY, LA, DC, etc. to stop not just missles, but rogue aircraft? then again, who's to say they aren't already?
I wouldn't believe it. Very few would be able to recognize this plane and most would assume it's a normal 747 from a distance. I can envision this thing secretly flying around and objects instantaneously exploding around the planes vicinity with very little residual damage. Can you imagine a few 'insurgents' walking around when someone's head just suddenly explodes with the heat of the laser and no indication or trace of what happened. That takes psychological warfare to a new level. Awesome...
I, uh, don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir.
Science Fiction leads the way, again. Can't wait to own a phaser. ;]