Geek News: US Military Shoots Down Aircraft with Giant Laser
What you see below is actual footage of a U.S. warship shooting down an unmanned aerial drone with a laser cannon during secret testing off the coast of California. The beam works by heating the underside of the plane to such a degree that it bursts into flames and crashes, and it’s working at a distance of two miles. This is the first time a weapon such as this has been created to work at sea. Is anyone else waiting for the Space Battleship Yamato theme song to play?
A Boeing military-grade laser has previously been mounted successfully on a humvee, but making it work at sea has been much more difficult because the salt air dissipates the beam and also because of the great distances involved. The laser was created by Raytheon, based in Tucson, Arizona.
So, geekery aside, are there really widespread military applications for death rays? Well, that remains to be seen. Raytheon claims that the lasers are ready to be distributed to US military ships as part of their aerial defense battery, which should be effective as long as they don’t leave any exhaust ports open for their enemies to shoot at. However, The New Scientist speculates that the amount of power necessary to shoot the thing may end up making their widespread use impractical for the time being.
Interestingly, the same article notes that the new laser does not fall under the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which is something else I was unaware existed. Lasers intended solely to blind their victims are prohibited by international law, which is nice and forward thinking. However, since the main purpose of the Raytheon laser is to shoot down aircraft, it does not fall under the protocol.
So 50s Sci-Fi serials may be right, and the laser beam may really be the weapon of the future.
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