...do you really believe that will happen?
weapons that see us naked.
Yay. More shit to kill people with.
The conflict between my inner peacenik and my inner 5-year-old are currently locked in brutal combat regarding how I feel about this.
worked for battleships....do you really believe that will happen?
Wether it's nuclear annihilation or environmental catastrophe I want to see the end of the world in my lifetime.
Awesome in the context of our technological advancement and living out sci-fi fantasy. Depressing in the context of the money being spent on this and the idea of what these weapons would do to actual human beings. I'm imagining warfare being even more horrific with people being sliced to pieces by laser beams =[I don't know if this is awesome or depressing.
Can this weapon be used to stop nuclear weapons?
I'm pretty sure the Navy's experimental weaponry budget alone could provide healthcare to a majority of Americans.
Well Shoop Da Whoop. When do i get my Gundam?
I wonder if they actually work or its just more SDI BS of us just sending defense contractors dumptrucks of money and them pretending to make things that work?
Can this weapon be used to stop nuclear weapons?
I'd rather see money go to laser guns than to people who irresponsibly had 20 kids they couldn't feed.
Yeah, even if it reflects the light, it's still in contact with it, meaning the mirror would warp and melt (?).
The navy doesn't have the littoral capabilities to deal with some Somali pirates, but lasers is where the R&D money is going? Pretty crazy...
Considering the last several major military projects (Army's FGS, Marine Corps' Osprey, F35, F22, and the Stryker) which were developed based on projected future needs of the military instead of what it actually needs today were abject failures at anything other than giving several corporations huge amounts of money, I'd say this stuff is not going to work anytime soon.
Some hints from the article - the solid state laser doesn't work well in polluted conditions. What this actually means is that the solid state laser doesn't work at all in anything but perfect conditions.
The one mega-watt laser isn't yet usable on a ship, which really mean that the megawatt laser sometime works in a laboratory when there's a perfect power supply, the thing is completely stationary, and 150 man hours of maintenance go into it between each shot.
The navy doesn't have the littoral capabilities to deal with some Somali pirates, but lasers is where the R&D money is going? Pretty crazy...
...a megawatt beam would burn through 20 feet of steel in a single second.
That's what a missile defense shield is for. No idea if this tech could be used for that purpose, though.
I have a hard time believing that.
What is a missile defense shield? It sounds like a joke.
Fun toys but worthless in reality. Days of Naval Combat basically ended years ago
Absolutely not. The lasers would burn right through them, like a hot knife through already-melted butter.
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There's not as [s]many people[/s]much stuff to blow up in space. Priorities, dude.
Some hints from the article - the solid state laser doesn't work well in polluted conditions. What this actually means is that the solid state laser doesn't work at all in anything but perfect conditions.