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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.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @09:00AM
It isn't about 'taking out' the cameras, but 'degrading' their ability to take clear images, hitting the cameras with a number of beams pulsing at various frequencies in an attempt to both 'dazzle' them and (assuming electromechanical aperture control) to try mess with any ALC, I do know from messing around with my shitty little bridge camera that a standard red laser being shone at it can cause it to lose focus and start the AF 'hunting', though I'd be surprised if military grade surveillance ones would suffer the same (focus would be more or less infinity anyway, I suppose, so AF mostly irrelevant)