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Video of laser weapon fired from airplane - Boing Boing
Not quite as destructive-looking as we've been lead to believe - the Advanced Tactical Laser (the lower-powered cousin to the Airborne Laser that is supposed to hit ground targets rather than missiles) is shown (supposedly it's hitting the vehicle from the air) torching a car's hood.
I would hope that they have the power turned way, way down for the test because if this is supposed to be a deadly weapon it doesn't seem to have much more power than the 2-5KW CO2 lasers I worked around years ago. The 5KW models could have done that much damage to a car.
Anyway, here's some more vids from the source site:
Boeing: Integrated Defense Systems - Missile Defense Systems - Directed Energy Systems (DES) - Videos
The last one, shown from the plane itself, is kinda cool, though - despite the apparent low power it's pretty amazing they can hold the beam in place for long enough to do damage - we all know how hard it is trying to hold your laser steady long enough to burn something - especially when that something is more than a few inches away! It would be interesting to know if the beam penetrated the car's hood.
Anyway, we in the US pay plenty of taxes so it's good to get at least a few burning vids!
Not quite as destructive-looking as we've been lead to believe - the Advanced Tactical Laser (the lower-powered cousin to the Airborne Laser that is supposed to hit ground targets rather than missiles) is shown (supposedly it's hitting the vehicle from the air) torching a car's hood.
I would hope that they have the power turned way, way down for the test because if this is supposed to be a deadly weapon it doesn't seem to have much more power than the 2-5KW CO2 lasers I worked around years ago. The 5KW models could have done that much damage to a car.
Anyway, here's some more vids from the source site:
Boeing: Integrated Defense Systems - Missile Defense Systems - Directed Energy Systems (DES) - Videos
The last one, shown from the plane itself, is kinda cool, though - despite the apparent low power it's pretty amazing they can hold the beam in place for long enough to do damage - we all know how hard it is trying to hold your laser steady long enough to burn something - especially when that something is more than a few inches away! It would be interesting to know if the beam penetrated the car's hood.
Anyway, we in the US pay plenty of taxes so it's good to get at least a few burning vids!
