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US warns China after lasers injure American pilots in Africa
The United States has issued a formal warning to China after personnel at the Asian country's military base in Djibouti used lasers to interfere with U.S. military aircraft, minorly injuring two pilots, according to the Pentagon.
Top Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White told reporters Thursday that the U.S. is confident the Chinese are behind the "very serious incidents," which have increased in the past few weeks.
"There have been two minor injuries. This activity poses a true threat to our airmen. We have formally demarched the Chinese government. And we've requested that that Chinese investigate these incidents," White said during a Pentagon briefing.
The U.S. government, meanwhile, has warned airmen to be cautious when flying in certain areas in Djibouti, in Africa, due to the recent incidents.
Also at CNN.
Related: A Small Secret Airstrip in Africa is the Future of America's Way of War
China Sends Troops to Djibouti Ahead of Establishment of its First Overseas Military Base
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 04 2018, @05:30PM (28 children)
Why not modify them a little, to ride that laser beam right back to it's source? We could even use mini-missiles, or "unarmed" missiles, so as to kill the guy holding the laser, but not level the apartment complex he's standing in.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @05:35PM (21 children)
Ah yes, murder, the obvious solution for prank level hijinks.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Friday May 04 2018, @05:48PM (8 children)
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @06:02PM (3 children)
So make sure and hurt them first? I get the angry sentiment, but that doesn't make it any less stupid of a statement.
Like seeing kids dropping pennies onto a freeway. Chance of anyone actually getting hurt is near zero, but you still think someone should go run them over.
Maybe the last few days of stories have riled people up a bit much. Calm down bruh.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday May 04 2018, @06:12PM (2 children)
Is your comment directed at me? If so, you have 100% misunderstood my comment. Perhaps you aren't familiar with that phrase?
Or did you click the wrong "Reply to This" button?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
You should keep in mind the OP the thread was based on. Context.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @04:44PM
Wow, crazy mods. How is that a troll? The point was the OP advocated murder, quite a lot of hurt to put on someone. That was the premise.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 04 2018, @06:08PM (2 children)
It's all fun and games until someone loses a missile launcher.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @11:46PM (1 child)
In this case, it would be "looses" a missile launcher. As in: "... until someone sets loose a missile launcher."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @06:27AM
No, he's right. When someone finds that thing all heck is going to break loose.
How do you lose a missile launcher?
I don't know. Ask a US soldier in Iraq.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 05 2018, @08:58AM
How seriously hurt has to be someone to justify a killing?
Or it all depends on the nationality of the hurt and the hurter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 04 2018, @05:53PM (6 children)
You call it murder. I call it pranking the prankster. Or, we could call it wanking the wanker. Whatever we call it, I'm with Darwin. Only the fittest should survive, and obviously, these wankers aren't fit.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday May 04 2018, @06:53PM (5 children)
Do you even understand (of course you fucking don't, I'm being rhetorical...) what Darwin meant by "fittest?" No? Then shut your stinking gob.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 04 2018, @11:16PM (4 children)
Don't start talking shit, Zumi. Of course I understand Darwin. Which part do you need explained? The part where stupid bastards fucking with heavily armed planes/tanks/troops/ships don't stand a chance of accomplishing anything, other than causing death to rain from the skies?
Go watch that video again - the one called "collateral murder". People die, for real, and their children with them. Survival of the fittest. It isn't a game, there is no reset, no power-up, nothing but death.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 05 2018, @04:32AM (3 children)
So you *don't* actually know what Darwin meant by "fitness." Thanks for confirming it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 05 2018, @01:48PM (2 children)
In nature, traits that contribute to survival to sexual maturity, and reproduction, are selected for. Traits that don't aid in survival to sexual maturity tend to be weeded out.
Now - I'm a big, bad, terrist mofo, and I'm pissed at the USA. So, I go out whenever possible, just to fuck with them. I've heard that lasers blind pilots, so I start waving a laser around when 'Murican aircraft are near. I get by with that little thrill for awhile - but one night, the jet flew over, and disappeared, only for six Apache helicopters to pop up over the trees. I quickly jump into a ditch to take cover, but that doesn't save my three wives and eighteen children sleeping in the hovel behind me. All of them dead, and I can't even find enough of their bodies for proper funerals. Darwin award, 21 times - three wives, and eighteen children, blown into eternity without passing my DNA on to the next generation.
Now, try one more time to convince me that you understand Darwin better than I do. The terrist mofo just ain't fit!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 05 2018, @05:07PM (1 child)
*rolls eyes*
If he already had kids then, newsflash, he was sexually mature and already reproduced. Evolution is not some teleological force. From a purely reproductive standpoint, the "terr'ists" are *more* fit than most Americans, and I have to wonder sometimes if there's some kind of subconscious understanding of that in our armed forces. Or in your mind, since you seem obsessed with levelling the playing field (and everything else for miles around).
War is not a case of genetic unfitness. It is not something wrong with the genome, it does not, for example, produce lazy sperm or mutations incompatible with life. No, war is something *we* do. You really want to conflate character traits or behavior (or culture...) with genes so you can point to Darwin and say "See? They DESERVED to die!" to ease what remains of your own conscience. It doesn't work like that.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 06 2018, @02:06AM
92nd percentile short circuit?
Mankind takes years to mature. Mankind requires constant nurturing in the first years of life. Our terrist hero has managed to nullify all the nurturing given to his offspring - which sorta kinda translates to an erasure of his sexual achievements, as well as the achievements of his three wives.
You, our sheltered American female member, seem to think that only adult males die in war. Women and children around the world would be happy to correct that belief.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 04 2018, @06:31PM
Well, yes, it sounds murderous, but it's also pretty clever imo.
Maybe a warning label would help:
警告：美國軍隊使用綠色激光瞄準導彈。 請避免使用綠色激光器，因為這樣會避免導致錯誤。
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday May 04 2018, @07:33PM (1 child)
Except it's not prank level. You have a craft that weighs anywhere from 200,000 to 900,000 lbs. moving at great speed. Take moving vehicles and take the danger up an order of magnitude at least.
The reality is that these pranksters are putting a lot of people in great danger when they disrupt pilots trying to keep the plane in the air.
There is a time and place for pranks, and pilots actively piloting large craft are simply not one of them.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @08:21AM
Ok, now if you're talking about take-off and landing, maybe..rest of the time? Altitude and Autopilot.
It's more a worry when they target light aircraft, especially those flight school Cessnas flown by inexperienced pilots at lower altitudes over residential areas (where there's a statistically greater chance of coming to the attentions of a nutter with a green laser pointer) there's more chance of a fatal loss of control happening there, still, AFAIK, this hasn't happened out there yet.
Mines is the right retina with scarring caused by walking into the beam of an IR laser diverted down an open lab sans any visible guide beam by a fucking idiot who I really must catch up with some day...in a dark alley...to thank properly..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @11:30PM
Doesn't have to be an explosive warhead. A few time getting sprayed with a Thioacetone warhead ought to solve the problem...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @06:45AM
If it is military action then it is an act of war
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday May 04 2018, @05:52PM (2 children)
Yes, a good old retroreflector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector [wikipedia.org] would be great, but you'd lose too much power.
I suggest an automated laser system that returns fire at comparable levels.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Friday May 04 2018, @05:55PM (1 child)
I suggest 7x the power coming in. Clearly you've never read The Satanic Bible.
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Friday May 04 2018, @06:15PM
I hear you but escalation... where would it end? Somewhere beyond Thunderdome I fear...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @06:08PM (1 child)
I'd hit the afterburner and go mach about 5 feet over their tiny heads.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 04 2018, @06:10PM
Having just been blinded by a laser - you might go mach five feet under their feet. In which case, you would achieve your intended result - with a few unintended consequences added in to the deal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Friday May 04 2018, @07:06PM
Escalation factors aside - because it's trivially easy for the target to remove the laser beam? My understanding is that laser-guided missiles typically use a laser to "paint" the target, creating a brightly blowing omni-directional bullseye. A laser pointer in comparison is about as tightly-focussed a beam as we can (cheaply) produce - the moment that beam points even one degree beyond the missile it becomes invisible - and you now have a guided missile flying into a (probably) residential district without any guidance.
Plus, it gets expensive really fast.