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| Science & Technology |
| Navy Talks About New Laser Tech: Maybe Too Damn Much |
| 2011-02-19 |
| Posted by:Mercutio |
| #7 Since the atmosphere is such a problem for ground based lasers, do you think that maybe the target for a big airborne laser could be something not in the atmosphere? Perhaps it gives our enemies a reason for pause... |
| Posted by: rammer 2011-02-19 22:48 |
| #6 Curvature of the earth/line of sight also a figure. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-02-19 22:26 |
| #5 Lasers propagate much better in the upper atmosphere and space due to a lack of scattering and absorption by the atmosphere. The problem with airborne lasers shooting down ICBMs is distances of hundreds or thousands of km vs a few to tens of km for shipborne air defense. Even the FEL won't work when it is raining or fogged over. |
| Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 2011-02-19 20:38 |
| #4 Airborne lasers are a waste of time IMO. The main application of lasers is to make ships at sea invincible to airborne threats. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2011-02-19 18:54 |
| #3 What they are not saying is that the Democrats are actively opposed to any energy based, or other missile defense system, for the US, or the US Navy. This is so bad that even though the airborne laser had proven itself, the Dems cut its funding immediately on getting control of congress, along with several other anti-missile programs. Boeing and the other manufacturers said they were going to continue research without government money, because it was working so well. And they expect the Republicans to bring it back, with interest. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-19 18:22 |
| #2 Two things I DON'T want to know: 1. My wife's Christmas budget; and 2. The true capabilities of our military..... 'effing dopes to release this -unless- there's really something special they're not telling us....... |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2011-02-19 17:54 |
| #1 It's "cut the defense budget" time. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-02-19 17:16 |