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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 01 2015, @06:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-not-examine-laser-with-remaining-good-eye dept.

Boeing thinks the best way to kill a drone is to zap it with a precision laser, burn a hole in it, and bring it down. So it created a weapon system to do just that. Wednesday morning, the company showed off its Compact Laser Weapon System for media in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a much smaller, significantly more portable version of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) Boeing demonstrated last year. This setup looks like an overgrown camera, swiveling around on a tripod.

Instead of a massive laser mounted on a dedicated truck, the compact system is small enough to fit in four suitcase-sized boxes and can be set up by a pair of soldiers or technicians in just a few minutes. The new system is more scalpel than sledgehammer. Its laser, and, especially, the off-the-shelf gimbal (a fancy motor that can aim the laser and camera in any direction) it’s mounted on, make it precise enough to target different parts of a UAV.


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:09AM

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:09AM (#230684)

    The shark-mounting kit appears to be missing...

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    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Tork on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:59AM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:59AM (#230693)
    Sigh.
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    • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday September 01 2015, @03:16PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @03:16PM (#230837)

      You ain't changing your sig anytime soon...

      • (Score: 4, Touché) by Tork on Tuesday September 01 2015, @06:20PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 01 2015, @06:20PM (#230922)
        I have to update it every year!!!
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