Army Shoots Down Artillery Shell with Laser!
 

Imagine that.

Go figure.

Kaboom.

That's the next step =)

Starship troopers just keeps on getting more factual everyday :1orglaugh

Cant wait till the bad guys get a hold of this and start lasering the airlines leaving the country over the ocean!

Vacations to Europe will never be so fun!

Mobile lasers.

Fucking right.

"The laser was fired from a static testbed in a carefully controlled test, but TRW officials said they looked forward to producing a truly mobile version as the program progressed. "

Roll it on over Beethoven.

If only einstein was around now-adays to point out the flaws in building such weapons.

Just imagine when these things are on satellites, they can take out any target at any time instantly.

I mean honestly, nukes aren't shit compared to this....

we keep building our confidence toward the idea of being able to defeat nuclear missiles... with even more advanced weapons technology. long range, high powered, fast tracking lasers are a great anti-personnel weapon, too.

Regan's star wars program, 20 years later :1orglaugh

the bad guys already have it, it's being developed for Israel.

Then again, i suppose in 100 years this technology will be so advanced we may very well be able to shoot down a mile wide astroid before it enters our atmosphere?

Thus moving us to the next level of civilization within the next 1,000 to 2,000 years (if we don't destroy ourselves)....colinization of the universe :thumbsup

"We've shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through the air at supersonic speed is no match for our giant laser beam"

Glad to see Dr. Evil's behind all of this!

Whatever man can imagine, given enough time, man can achieve. A favorite saying I learned at an early age.

"lets get things nice and sparkling clear." - CWO

Bad guys ALWAYs have the better weapons.

:winkwink:

That was the medias mock on the concept. It was called SDI :thumbsup

Strategic Defense Inititive.

Which sounds like a real good idea to me.

Reading that and looking at that pic of dr. evil makes me laugh

I'm just waiting for the light saber to become available to consumers.

yes can't wait for the part when guys and girls showering together

What a tosser, you try living in a place infested by fucking crazy killing towel heads and then you'll change you mind about Israel. There just trying to defend themselfs just like the US did with the world trade center, except they get that shit happening every couple of days.



That lazer looks wicked, I WANT ONE!

In 50 years the US will control the world with there lazer/missile technology, nobody will be able to fuck with em.

I just hope they are still friendly with Australia :)

Sammy

Artillery is almost useless now against high tech targets (even as "high" tech as China) since radar/laser based counter battery fire can be sent after the FIRST shell is launched.. So the old days of having concealed artillery placed far off in the hills and have it be safe are long gone.

Only mobile arty is safe, and that's if they can pack it up and move it before the counter battery fire lands, which is most likely <1 minute in a battlefield situation.

Still.. Cool that they've got that now. Can't say it's useful, but it's cool.

Cheers,
Backov

why don't they just use the same kind and shoot the enemy, or buildings and such...

Geneva Convention I believe, either way I know there are international war rules about use of lasers.... IE, when I was a scout in the Corps, we used lasers as markers for artiller, airplanes, and ships to drop their bombs, and were told we were not allowed to use the lasers to purposely blind enemies. It was also explained to me about the rules with lasers, because of course I asked the same question you did... Why dont we lase the whole battlefield and cut everyone in half? haha

Pretty fucking cool if it's true!

Wonder if this is some pre-invasion propaganda just to get Saddam's panties in a bunch? Interesting it's being developed for the US and Israel...but it's still cool!

your an idiot :321GFY

Its amazing. If they are letting news out like that to the
general public, imagine all the stuff they have behind the
curtains????

Lets hope that it doesnt get in the wrong hands.

Mmmm ok, they are using their rights to broke almost every single intl. treaty regarding occupied territories and human rights... yeah just the exact way 60 years ago germany did the same to a group of people called "jews"... did you hear about it?

Ironic... the hunted became the hunter.


DIE israel and let the world live in peace. :BangBang:

Ah we got another brilliant human product over here.

:1orglaugh I was thinking of same thing

Yeh ok :321GFY

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...161/2m3hv.html

Does that picture not look fake? I mean, it'd be easy to make a plastic model that looks like that... It looks like a spot light... except spotlights have huge powerful bulbs in them, which use a high amount of energy.. this thing doesn't seem to have any centred 'source'.

Anyways.. yeah..

Cheers,
Matt

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Incase you weren't paying attention. The US pulled out of the ICBM Treaty so they could make these tests without being in direct violation of the treaty.

I think the idea to stop an incoming ICBM with a Nuclear warhead is a damn good idea!!

can we say,

"Oblisk of light" :)

people also seem to be largely unaware that the withdrawal was also allowed by the language of that same treaty.

"This shootdown shifts the paradigm for defensive capabilities. We've shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through the air at supersonic speed is no match for a laser," said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of the missile defense command.

Wow. This is cool and insane at the same time. Very wicked technology. :thumbsup

first unmanned stealths.....now lasers

sounds like the beginning to the terminator movies.

You're looking only at the "muzzle" of the laser gun. <A HREF="http://www.beyond2000.com/news/story_658.html" target="_blank">This is more like how the actual weapon appears.</A> There is no "powerful bulb" in this, there are huge solid state lasers of the size and shape such as <A HREF="http://www.eurekalert.org/features/doe/2002-04/dlnl-bff053102.php" target="_blank">this one</A> which are within the housing below and to the sides of the "spotlight" you see in the photograph. The light is channeled to the mirror, which both directs the beam and focuses it.

In the <A HREF="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/021105/161/2m3hv.html" target="_blank">given picture</A>, you can see the pipe on the far right side which is the light channel coming up from the structure that houses the laser(s???). It ends with the angle of the mirror that turns the beam into the spotlight assembly. The beam is entering the spotlight casing from that side and is reflected onto the reddish back mirror by the round centered object, the reflection of which is magnified and displaced a bit lower in the picture.

You can see the tilt hydraulics on either side of the spotlight with pistons set against center points. There'd be a matching pair on the backside. The panning mechanism is below and outside the photograph frame.

The lazer weapon is cool. It says we developed it for Israel, it will probably be the US army who operates it in Israel