Laser Warfare is Here

[CaptUSA]

http://www.gizmag.com/lockheed-marti...r-truck/36377/

Good news/bad news, I guess...

Good news, war is about to get much cheaper.
Bad news, war is about to get much cheaper.

[heavenlyboy34]

[VIDEODROME]

What the $#@!

[torchbearer]

[torchbearer]

//

[torchbearer]

[Uriel999]

I'll take 3!

[donnay]

[donnay]

This will be next...the thing is, they more than likely already have the technology in place.

Space Based Laser Weapons


Called the Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment, the hardware is being eyed to fly into orbit in 2012 and carry out tests for about three years.

“We’re looking at a limited threat ... a few ballistic missiles targetedat the United States .”

The Air Force has teamed up with a trio of aerospace giants—Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW—to design, develop and conduct the space experiment.

The test will involve a megawatt-class chemical laser in space, making use of a large, multi-segmented mirror that unfurls and locks into place. It would create a 13-foot (4-meter) diameter reflecting surface.

Beam control equipment then would pinpoint test targets and the system then would blast objects with a powerful burst of laser light.

The entire spacecraft would tip the scales at between 45,000 and 50,000 pounds (20,455 and 22,700 kilograms).

The now-under-development heavy-lift Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle would boost the fight experiment to space.

The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles , California will manage the program.

“The idea of a space-based laser has been around since 1977. Since then, a lot of technology has matured. We believe we’re at the point where we can now tackle the big challenge of integrating that technology together and flying it in space,” said Air Force Major Arnie Streland, head of Space-Based Laser Acquisition, Planning and Management in Los Angeles .

The Reagan administration’s Cold War-era Strategic Defense Initiative was pursued to create a high-tech shield to thwart a massive wave of incoming ballistic missiles launched from the Soviet Union .

Today, it’s a different world.

“We’re looking at a limited threat...a few ballistic missiles targeted at the United States ,” Streland told SPACE.com at the 16th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs , sponsored by the Space Foundation. (Editor’s note: SPACE.com is the official web sponsor of the event.)

“Also, the technology has matured a lot and there have been key breakthroughs,” he said.

Those breakthroughs include optics that don’t need to be kept supercold, which greatly decreases the weight and complexity of a laser battle station.

Less weight also means use of cheaper launchers to boost a less-costly laser system into orbit, he said.

Streland said the proof-of-concept of the experiment is destroying a dummy missile via a laser beam as the rocket arcs through space, high above the Earth.

During the three-year shake out of hardware other testing may be tried, such as demonstrating space surveillance concepts or perhaps learning how to spot chemical warfare aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere.

A fully deployed operational network of laser battle stations, if given a technological and political go-ahead, could involve a constellation of anywhere between 20 to 30 spacecraft to ensure global coverage, Streland said.

“But that’s a long way in the future to come up with a definite number right now,” he said.

The cost of such a system has not been estimated.

“We are not building an operational system, nor a prototype to an operational system. This is an experiment so we can prove the technology...to provide the technical foundation if a decision is made to deploy an operational system,” Streland said.

If a go-ahead were given, the first launch of an operational system might take place in 2020, followed by several years of launches to orbit a full constellation of spacecraft around Earth.

T.I. Weintraub, a technical staff member of Lockheed Martin Management & Data Systems, said the nation is technologically ready to move forward on space-based laser defense.

Continued...

[Stratovarious]

They'll ban it , it's a cop killer...lol

[heavenlyboy34]

This will be next...the thing is, they more than likely already have the technology in place.

Space Based Laser Weapons
[...]

Death Star coming to be in my lifetime! :'(

[donnay]

Death Star coming to be in my lifetime! :'(

I believe it is already here.

[Demigod]

Just another trick so to get financing for the new weapon of the "future".I would like them to point one useful thing about their weapon except for Star Wars.

[VIDEODROME]

[Slave Mentality]

Came to see Real Genius reference. Not disappointed.

[CaptainAmerica]

[CaptainAmerica]

beat me to the punch