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.
Original Submission
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @06:16AM
Can't have the enemy-of-the-decade gaining any sort of defense against our holy weapons of godliness. The Lord is on our side!
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:05AM
what they are showing off is something that burns plastic radio controlled toys that are a few hundred feet away, not Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles that fly thousands of feet in the air.
it should be referred to as a toy-killing laser cannot as it can't touch a real UAV.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:22AM
What part of "proof of concept" do you not understand?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:55AM
Concepts are too hard. Show me a video or I don't get it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by mtrycz on Tuesday September 01 2015, @12:08PM
A car analogy would be fine, too.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 2) by bugamn on Thursday September 03 2015, @09:30PM
It's like a foot. You can step on a toy car, but not on a real car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @11:38AM
Also, drone builders will start painting them in highly reflective (silver) paint, greatly reducing the laser absorption, which means they will need a much bigger laser, and the reflected laser light will go everywhere, creating a huge hazard for the operators.
A particularly evil adversary would build a retro-reflective (and possibly otherwise completely useless) drone, effectively DoS'ing the laser system, by either damaging the system itself (especially the camera), or permanently blinding the operators.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday September 01 2015, @05:10PM
Slight correction. UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Autonomous isn't part of the name. Some UAVs are hand-launched and not the multi-million dollar ones you typically hear about. Perfect tools for tactical situations where you want to know where the enemy is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_RQ-11_Raven [wikipedia.org]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:09AM
The shark-mounting kit appears to be missing...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Tork on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:59AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday September 01 2015, @03:16PM
You ain't changing your sig anytime soon...
(Score: 4, Touché) by Tork on Tuesday September 01 2015, @06:20PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 01 2015, @09:10AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Illop on Tuesday September 01 2015, @12:39PM
Wouldn't mind having one of those.... You know, for duck hunting of course.
(Score: 1) by riT-k0MA on Tuesday September 01 2015, @12:57PM
Duck. Roasted. On the wing...
(Score: 3, Touché) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:21PM
Step 1: Create scary unmanned aircraft that spies and/or kills you which instills fear and panic.
Step 2: Create laser to destroy said aircraft.
step 3: Profit!
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Tuesday September 01 2015, @04:09PM
You forgot step 3: "????"
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:51PM
See DannyB's comment (below).
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:32PM
Happy, friendly killer robots. With fuzzy cuddly exteriors as an optional extra for a small additional charge.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Informative) by sce7mjm on Tuesday September 01 2015, @05:33PM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088024/ [imdb.com]
car mounted automatic laser taking out small drone cars/mines.
drones for exploring hazardous areas
not that bad actually.
The spider bots still freak me out.