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posted by n1 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the another-settlement-needs-our-help dept.

The toy-like drones destroyed during an Army field exercise at Fort Sill, Okla., last month weren't anything special; however, the way they were brought down -- zapped out of the sky by lasers mounted on a Stryker armored vehicle -- might grab people's attention.

The first soldier to try out the lasers was Spc. Brandon Sallaway, a forward observer with the 4th Infantry Division. He used a Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser to shoot down an 18-by-10-inch drone at 650 yards, an Army statement said.

"It's nothing too complicated but you have to learn how to operate each system and get used to the controls which is exactly like a video game controller," said Sallaway, who hadn't fired a laser before the exercise.

The drone-killing laser was relatively low energy -- only 5 kilowatts -- but the Army has tested much more powerful weapons. A 30-kilowatt truck-mounted High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator shot down dozens of mortar rounds and several drones in November 2013 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

Since then, researchers have made rapid advances in laser weapons, said Bob Ruszkowski, who works on air dominance projects and unmanned systems in Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works facility.

"We're really on the cusp of seeing the introduction of lasers in future systems," he said.

Which do you prefer, lasers or plasma weapons?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by idiot_king on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:17AM (28 children)

    by idiot_king (6587) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:17AM (#518119)

    How about "no weapons." (Sounds scary, doesn't it? Nonviolence-- the most terrifying idea of all!)
    Enough kids die in the streets of the US already. Atomic bombs somehow aren't enough to enforce Amerikkka's global dominance? Or the endless disruption of the Mideast? Now we have to go full Moonraker.
    Arms are not a solution to anything. We trade lead for photons. Wow, such progress.
    But again, I must sigh: technology is always, for some reason, weaponised after it is done being a curiosity. I wish we could break that curse. But we are Political Animals. What a drag.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:20AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:20AM (#518120) Journal

    A laser gun is a tool, not a weapon.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:33AM (#518122)

      Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic.

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:49PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:49PM (#518402) Journal

      It can be both. [merriam-webster.com]

      1
      : something (such as a club, knife, or gun) used to injure, defeat, or destroy

      If it's purpose is to destroy things then it's a weapon.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:44PM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:44PM (#518504)

      A 5mW laser can blind from a distance.

      A 5KW laser is a million times more powerful, it does more than pop black balloons - calling it a tool instead of a weapon is like calling a Samurai sword a really good butter knife.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:25PM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:25PM (#518805) Homepage
        You should see my two-handed letter opener!
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:38AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:38AM (#518128)

    Lasers don't contaminate the battlefield with lead, tungsten, uranium, and worse. We can even power them with renewable energy sources.

    So this is a weapon type for democrats.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:05AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:05AM (#518176) Journal

      We can even power them with renewable energy sources.

      In a battle field? I doubt it.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:58AM (7 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @05:58AM (#518133)

    History is usually written by the gang with more and better weapons.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:04AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:04AM (#518134)

      AI brinksmanship is where each side builds a Skynet and threatens to switch it on.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday May 31 2017, @11:14AM (4 children)

        by anubi (2828) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @11:14AM (#518208) Journal

        I get the idea that since we are so heavily invested in "megaweapons", an adversary could well suddenly pop up somewhere with thousands, maybe a million, small drones, preprogrammed to wreak havoc on specific targets.

        We would be like a hunter with scads of high powered rifles, prepared for bear, but tangled up in a hornet's nest.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:25PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:25PM (#518429)

          China is the only country that could beat the USA in drone mass production. The USA is pretty damn good at producing things.

          This is the ideal nuke substitute. Picture a fully autonomous drone, firing sideways like a tiny AC-130 gunship, just large enough to contain a .223 (5.66 mm) rifle embedded in the wing. There could be a million in the air, killing indiscriminately without human operators. Everything that moves gets shot.

          Start with a large amount of ammo. After the enemy population thins out, substitute a larger/heavier power source and cut down on the ammo carried.

          Since most people don't have weeks of food and don't have supply tunnels, an undesired country could be cleared out in a few weeks. It is thus recycled into unsettled open frontier land, ready to be colonized.

          • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 01 2017, @10:43AM (1 child)

            by anubi (2828) on Thursday June 01 2017, @10:43AM (#518778) Journal

            That's scary.

            I get the suspicion relations between USA and China are pretty tenuous. And China is growing its manufacturing power by leaps and bounds, while American politicians are paying sky-high execumanagerial salaries and pensions to certain politically well-connected elite to lay American technical people off, outsourcing to H1-B.

            I am getting the strong idea that the American populace is getting pretty ignorant technologically as the result of all this H1-B stuff and double-whammied with DMCA / DRM / Copyright / Intellectual Property law designed to keep the general populace ignorant so the technologically-based wishlist-enforcement systems of the elite will be obeyed instead of circumvented.

            So we have a nation full of ignoramuses awaiting slaughter.

            What really scares me too is something like this is predicted in the Biblical book of Revelation Chapter 9, although I thought this was going to be some sort of genetically modified insect like a desert locust.

            I probably bring up the Bible too much on this forum, but that book has some really uncanny things going on with it that I can not explain... ( well, others have their Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce... so don't throw the loony-look at me too hard... )

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @07:47PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @07:47PM (#519009)

              Hey, I'll take the Bible over the Koran any day, so I must mute my complaints. At least Jesus didn't have a lust for 6-year-old kids, and he wasn't fond of stoning women.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:48PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:48PM (#518506)

          The naval warfare simulations which gave each side a certain amount of resources would always be won by swarms of small boats (like Kennedy's PT boat) instead of fleets that included large capital ships, unless the side with the capital ships outspent the swarm by a wide margin.

          The swarm of small attack vehicles model is very resource-efficient in a shooting war, but the political negotiations are won with large capital ships.

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:27PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:27PM (#518355) Journal

        Doesn't work, because nobody believes it's Skynet ahead of time.

        Actually, Skynet itself doesn't make much sense. What's going to happen is that increasing levels of AI will hollow-out middle management *and* the workers until all that's left is a figure-head top-guy. And the AI will do whatever it's been designed to do while ignoring the pronouncements of the top guy even more effectively than middle management currently does. Nobody seems to be noticing that this is already in process.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:23AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:23AM (#518145)

    It's actually the other way around, much technology is originally created for arms purposes and is later put to other uses. War is the father of all.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:46AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:46AM (#518152)

      If what you say is true, how do you explain Our Tech is Shit [soylentnews.org] despite all those lovely wars by Bushbamarump?

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:07AM (2 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @08:07AM (#518177) Journal

      War is the father of all.

      A good for nothing father.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday May 31 2017, @09:13AM

      by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @09:13AM (#518187) Journal

      I thought that title went to porn. That industry always seems to be at the forefront of technology, or so I have heard.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:54AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @06:54AM (#518155) Journal

    As long as some people think that stealing others work by threatening them with weapons is a workable business. It will be better to have the better weapon than letting others have it.

    Another aspect of this is there is a breed of people that for some reason always end up being at the top of large corporations, organizations and politicians. And they have the inclination to enslave everybody else. The means and degree vary but the meta goal is the same.
    Somehow engineers and technically creative people tend to have more in common with engineers etc of other countries and cultures than with their own "masters". A possible future development is to cut chaff.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:58AM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:58AM (#518172) Journal

    How about "no weapons."

    Anything that requires near unanimous consent among the entire planet in order to work doesn't work.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:32PM (1 child)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:32PM (#518357) Journal

      A valid point, but there's no real advantage in having the most weapons if neither you nor the guy with the second amount of weapons dare to use them (against each other). In the current environment the 3rd or 4th down seems to be more advantageous than being in the top position.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:21AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:21AM (#518593) Journal

        A valid point, but there's no real advantage in having the most weapons if neither you nor the guy with the second amount of weapons dare to use them (against each other).

        Why do you think there's no real advantage? That mass of weaponry worked real well against the targets the US has fought over the past 70 years. The US never fought the USSR directly (the second largest military power), but the US's military turned out to be a significant advantage in a variety of situations that didn't involve a direct fight with the USSR.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:32PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:32PM (#518267)

    That is both an insane proposition and quite dangerous one (should it actual catch on). And I don't know how something this ludicrous was modded up. There will always be weapons and violence as long as there are Humans. If at any point the sentient being on this planet somehow get on without both of those things, then believe me they will not be Human by any definition.

    Even if I would never use force of arms against another person unprovoked, I live in reality where I know others will not offer me the same kindness. I will not be defenseless, nor will I render my government defenseless from other governments so I can claim the moral high-ground and virtue signal to the world my willingness to become extinct.

    Arms have always solved problems. That is what they were invented to do. And sometimes they are the only solution that will work permanently.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:15PM (1 child)

      by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:15PM (#518291)

      >And sometimes they are the only solution that will work permanently.

      I'm struggling to think of any example of that - ever. Other than total genocide (which is its own problem), violence almost always begets further violence a little ways down the road, once the most-recently-wronged group gets back on its feet.

      Not that nonviolence has a great track record either, just that it seems silly to credit violence with permanent solutions .

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:07AM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday June 01 2017, @12:07AM (#518587) Journal

        I'm struggling to think of any example of that - ever. Other than total genocide (which is its own problem), violence almost always begets further violence a little ways down the road, once the most-recently-wronged group gets back on its feet.

        There are a lot of examples. The Blackfoot Indians still exist, but they ain't coming back to fight. The Aborigines are still around, but they're not gonna take down Canberra anytime soon.

        You don't have to kill everyone. You only have to assimilate or marginalize so thoroughly that reciprocal violence is pointless.

        It's almost never a peaceful or pleasant process, but out of such things Frenchmen (as opposed to Normans and Bretons and Burgundians) and Indians (as opposed to Punjabis and Gujaratis or any of the many other smaller political entities that pre-dated British India) are made.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.