Lockheed Martin's laser can stop a truck from over a mile away

 

Lasers have staggering range, can attack land or air-based targets and are dirt-cheap to fire, making them ideal for a military with one eye on the budget. Now, Lockheed Martin has worked out that the technology could also be used for stopping a car without resorting to lethal force. The company has been testing out a new fiber-optic laser, called ATHENA, which was able to burn through the engine manifold of a truck that was over a mile away...

 

...ATHENA is based on Lockheed's earlier ADAM system, which was designed to shoot down enemy rockets while in mid-air. This time out, the hardware used a technique called "spectral beam combining," which involves taking multiple laser modules and pointing them in the same place to create a single, powerful, high-quality laser beam. Now, feel free to disagree with us, but doesn't that sound an awful lot like how the Death Star's main weapon worked?

 

For one I'm not shocked at all that this exist. In fact if this is being released to the public, I'd imagine that what we don't know yet is many times more advanced than this.

Isn't this pretty much what Reagan was going for with his Star Wars initiative?

Yeah that's kinda what he was talking about. Except the LASER would have been space based and would have shot down ICBM's. It was unthinkable at the time from a tech standpoint but it scared the crap out of the Russians, who knew that they couldn't compete with that.

""LASER""

I've gotta get me one of those!

I don't know about a death star but if intelligent life is able to venture to Earth they will have hand held weapons that are capable of wiping a city block out.

I don't know about a death star but if intelligent life is able to venture to Earth they will have hand held weapons that are capable of wiping a city block out.

 

You've been watching too many sci-fi movies. :woot:

You've been watching too many sci-fi movies. :woot:

 

Not really, most of them are crap.

 

What I have been watching is the Science Channel.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2RK78pbb_k

As far as what wildcat and Jumper Dad hit on.

 

Star Wars! Let's get this talk going and scare the crap out of Putin. Better yet, let's wait until we launch them into orbit until we inform anyone.

As far as what wildcat and Jumper Dad hit on.

 

Star Wars! Let's get this talk going and scare the crap out of Putin. Better yet, let's wait until we launch them into orbit until we inform anyone.

There has been some speculation that we have already deployed the "Rods of God" defense in orbit. It basically shoots telephone pole sized tungsten rods that will kill just about anything with kinetic energy. Russia has had some strange holes found in their outer reaches and some other meteor activity, that some blame on this little baby...

 

 

This? This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold.

 

This? This is Kent. This is what happens to people when they get too sexually frustrated.

Not really, most of them are crap.

 

What I have been watching is the Science Channel.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2RK78pbb_k

 

The human race ranking...."zero point zero".

 

Just for Bluto....

Yeah that's kinda what he was talking about. Except the LASER would have been space based and would have shot down ICBM's. It was unthinkable at the time from a tech standpoint but it scared the crap out of the Russians, who knew that they couldn't compete with that.

 

Most people who have studied USSR history do. They were hopelessly bankrupt and losing badly at the Cold War arms race in the '60s, by all accounts. They couldn't counter the "Missile Gap" then, and the concept of Star Wars was a no-brainer in summit talks. We won the Cold War in the '60s and still kept on spending like drunken sailors on overkill.