The US Army's getting Death Stars!

[scooter]

US Army to deploy 60 kw solid state laser

"The inherent scalability of this beam-combined laser system has allowed us to build the first 60 kW-class fiber laser for the US Army," Robert Afzal, senior fellow for Laser and Sensor Systems at Lockheed said. "We have shown that a powerful directed energy laser is now sufficiently light-weight, low-volume, and reliable enough to be deployed on tactical vehicles for defensive applications on land, at sea and in the air."

[Rick Lowe]

I wonder when the US Navy will deploy "Sharks with..."   

I've thought for a while now that the 'non-lethal' vehicle-mounted microwave crowd-control emitters would, if the power level was ramped up enough, be a real-world Death Ray...

[PR19_Kit]

Presumably it'd be a 'line of sight' weapon, so its maximum Surface-to-Surface range would be 27 miles across a flat desert or water?

[Rick Lowe]

If you could somehow scatter the beam, it would make a dandy Energy Shield against - well, any kind of incoming ordnance.
That might be easier that using it to shoot down any incoming - though with computer detection, targeting and fire control, it would be quicker on the recharge time.

We're living in a Sci-Fi World...

[PR19_Kit]

It's light, isn't it? So any lens should work to scatter the beam, but wouldn't that diminish its power?

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, that would be the trade-off. Plus the fact that if you ramped it up enough to be effective in that role, without a way to limit the range of the beam/scatter, you'd have a 'wall of death' that would extend as far LEO, maybe further. And it would be a flat wall, rather than a Bubble around the generating ship/vehicle.

So maybe better as specific anti-ordnance weapon, after all.

[zenrat]

No one has asked the most important question.
Do they make the correct sci fi blaster noise when fired?

[scooter]

No one has asked the most important question.
Do they make the correct sci fi blaster noise when fired?

I'm sure the geeks in the first laser arty battalion will find a way. 

That might be easier that using it to shoot down any incoming - though with computer detection, targeting and fire control, it would be quicker on the recharge time.

And cheaper too, when you consider when an ally equipped with 3 million dollar each Patriots used one to shoot down a 300 dollar quadcopter.

[Rick Lowe]

No one has asked the most important question.
Do they make the correct sci fi blaster noise when fired?

I'm sure the geeks in the first laser arty battalion will find a way. 

It's amazing what you can do with an off-the-shelf sound sampler and speaker combo...

[

That might be easier that using it to shoot down any incoming - though with computer detection, targeting and fire control, it would be quicker on the recharge time.

And cheaper too, when you consider when an ally equipped with 3 million dollar each Patriots used one to shoot down a 300 dollar quadcopter.

Sounds like the practice in the Falklands Affair, when they were using anti-armour missiles for Bunker-Busting...

Still, you use what you brung... like they say: "If it looks Stupid, but works, it ain't Stupid."