Laser Turrets on Bombers and Fighter Jets like Aero Fighters

[ST Dragon]

http://gizmodo.com/5978740/us-military- ... -airplanes

US Military Will Install Laser Turrets on Bombers and Fighter Jets.
It was science fiction before, but now it's really happening, Young Skywalker: The US Navy and Air Force are going to install liquid-cooled, solid-state lasers in combat airplanes. Laser turrets designed to defend the planes by shooting incoming threats like surface-to-air missiles and rockets. Seriously. The above is an official concept image by DARPA, but integration is happening this year, with real firing tests coming in 2014.

So perhaps it wont be long before we see scenes like the Aero Fighters 2 intro, in real life air combat!
But I'm pretty sure both the USA and USSR had developed high powered stationary land-based, navy & orbital laser weapons back in the cold-war era and kept secret, so this is nothing new, apart from these ones being smaller.

But anyone know what they mean by solid-state lasers?! How does that apply to lasers?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLbjqRPJRA

[nZero]

so this is nothing new, apart from these ones being smaller.

Also much lower power. Just for intercepting missiles and detonating their warheads prematurely or scrambling their guidance systems, not for air-to-air or air-to-ground combat.

But anyone know what they mean by solid-state lasers?! How does that apply to lasers?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_laser

[TransatlanticFoe]

The gas laser is probably simplest for explaining the basic physics behind it, but a solid state laser uses a solid (usually a crystal) as its medium instead.

Lasers are pretty unimpressive and largely impractical as weapons - for intercepting missiles, all it really does is heat up the casing to cause structural failure. And that top image is for show, because I doubt you'd be able to mount a powerful laser of that beamwidth on a B1. More realistic is the second image. Aside from permanently blinding a pilot, its effectiveness against aircraft is likely limited without more power - which means carrying a massive power source and cooling equipment.

[Leader Bee]

Plus weapons that blind people are outlawed by the geneva convention and i'm sure the US wants to avoid such obvious warcrimes.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventi ... al_Weapons

[idchappy]

Cool, we'll have terminators in no time....

[Jeneki]

"Check it out man, I totally cleared this mission!"

"No way dude, you had to use a laser bomb on that boss. Fake 1cc."

[Skyline]

Dolphins Piloting Fighter Jets like Aero Fighters

[BulletMagnet]

Plus weapons that blind people are outlawed by the geneva convention and i'm sure the US wants to avoid such obvious warcrimes.

Such minor considerations haven't held us back before.

[mesh control]

great thread

[Moniker]

Plus weapons that blind people are outlawed by the geneva convention and i'm sure the US wants to avoid such obvious warcrimes.

Such minor considerations haven't held us back before.

Can't say I can imagine The Hague prosecuting a case against a nation deploying X-Wings (Deathstar??) without devolving into high-fives, cheap beer, and chest bumps.

[Mischief Maker]

Finally a weapon to match the terrorists' boxcutters!

Am I the only one cynic enough to think that the "Star Wars" program of the 80s was just a giant (taxpayer) money pit?

[Moniker]

Am I the only one cynic enough to think that the "Star Wars" program of the 80s was just a giant (taxpayer) money pit?

No, I think that's the commonly held opinion. The idea was to outspend the USSR in any way possible, coz we capitalist pigs have more moneys.

[Mischief Maker]

Am I the only one cynic enough to think that the "Star Wars" program of the 80s was just a giant (taxpayer) money pit?

No, I think that's the commonly held opinion. The idea was to outspend the USSR in any way possible, coz we capitalist pigs have more moneys.

Am I the only one cynic enough to think that that was NOT the plan, but rather a senile Ronald Reagan running around like the country had a hole in its pocket, and when the fall of the USSR caught the CIA by surprise people in power decided to spin Reagan's QUADRUPLING of USA's national debt by saying, "Oh yeah, that was TOTALLY our plan all along!"

[BulletMagnet]

Am I the only one cynic enough to think that that was NOT the plan, but rather a senile Ronald Reagan running around like the country had a hole in its pocket, and when the fall of the USSR caught the CIA by surprise people in power decided to spin Reagan's QUADRUPLING of USA's national debt by saying, "Oh yeah, that was TOTALLY our plan all along!"

Keep going, you might eventually get to what I think of it.

[austere]

Funnily enough the Star Wars program was nothing short of genius and was the direct cause of the Soviet Union's downfall, not the war in Afghanistan as is commonly thought (though its contribution was not insignificant).

The USA is attempting to do the same thing right now (complete with supporting Islamist terrorists worldwide after play fighting with them for a while to lead adversary nations to underspend on intelligence), but it isn't the 80s anymore and the OPEC USD monopoly is about to disappear. Things are going to heat up by the end of this decade.

Some people like to think the US government acts randomly based on the idiotic senators/presidents/what have you, that they see, but the real brains of the government are mathematicians, scientists and incredible geniuses who run the various think tanks that give the advise to the idiots people vote for. Here's the kicker: It's the same thing everywhere. The "never attribute etc." mantra is a very easy way to skip lessons at geopolitics. In the coming days, certain leaks from the middle east should demonstrate that to people very clearly (and don't bothering asking ask how I know).

As for this laser, I'll believe it when I see it. ;P

[Mischief Maker]

Some people like to think the US government acts randomly based on the idiotic senators/presidents/what have you, that they see, but the real brains of the government are mathematicians, scientists and incredible geniuses who run the various think tanks that give the advise to the idiots people vote for. Here's the kicker: It's the same thing everywhere. The "never attribute etc." mantra is a very easy way to skip lessons at geopolitics. In the coming days, certain leaks from the middle east should demonstrate that to people very clearly (and don't bothering asking ask how I know).

You know, this idea that we needn't worry, our country is in the benevolent hands of a shadowy cabal operating without transparency or accountability, pulling the strings of the world's governments with one hand and stroking a persian cat with the other, gosh darn it, sounds kinda un-American to me.

Considering the think tank that WAS responsible for the Iraq War 2, the Project for a New American Century, has such mental giants on its roster as Dan Quayle, I don't think I'm comfortable relinquishing our democracy into their capable hands.

Go read "Legacy of Ashes" and you'll see what a hollow excuse "we're accomplishing AWESOME things, but we can't actually tell you about any of them" really is.

(and don't bothering asking ask how I know).

[Jeneki]

Can I get one mounted on a shark's head?

/drevil

[Drachenherz]

great threat

FTFY

[moh]

Dolphins Piloting Fighter Jets like Aero Fighters

fuck yeah

[Jeneki]

I stand corrected.

FRICKIN' DOLPHINS WITH FRICKIN' LASER BEAMS ATTACHED TO THEIR FRICKIN' HEADS!

[moh]

now we're talkin.