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posted by Dopefish on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the shoop-da-woop dept.

Sir Garlon writes:

"According to the Associated Press, the US Navy has announced plans to actually deploy an operational laser weapon aboard the USS Ponce later this year.

The solid-state laser weapon system is designed to target what the Navy describes as 'asymmetrical threats.' Those include aerial drones, speed boats and swarm boats, all potential threats to warships in the Persian Gulf, where the Ponce, a floating staging base, is set to be deployed.

'It fundamentally changes the way we fight,' said Capt. Mike Ziv, program manager for directed energy and electric weapon systems for the Naval Sea Systems Command."

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:54PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:54PM (#2492) Journal

    A lot of it is butch marketing speak. People in government and employed by contractors to the government, who don't have military backgrounds or training per se, love to sling it around. It makes them feel tougher. I've heard it from aides to President Clinton who've never fired a shot in their lives, and from people at the CIA who's greatest thrill is to get back an intelligence briefing they wrote for the President with an "A" grade written on the top by the big man. It evens bleeds through to entertainment. Take the Bourne movies--a lot of butch marketing terms and tough guy metaphors thrown around. Or your average FPS US-military themed games. It's inevitable that that sort of language rubs off on the real soldiers, who mostly don't need to talk tough because they are tough. They're too busy training all the time to sit around and think up poetic and fearsome ways to describe what they do.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by mhajicek on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:38PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:38PM (#2578)

    The term "asymmetric warfare" has been around for decades, referring to guerilla warfare, insurgencies, and uprisings.

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  • (Score: 1) by tibman on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:46PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 20 2014, @07:46PM (#3659)

    Asymmetrical in this case is class difference. In naval warfare the biggest ship doesn't win. You can't send an aircraft carrier against a submarine. Some ships are specialized in destroying other classes.

    As far as soldiers go, they think up plenty of colorful ways to describe things. Those terms are seldom accepted by "normal" people as decent names for concepts though.

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