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| 2002/11/6 [Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan, Reference/Military] UID:26433 Activity:high |
11/5 Hah! I always knew Reagan's Starwars could *never* work! What a
ridiculous waste of money and we got *nothing* for it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2407807.stm
\_ Knocking out artillery with photons != missile defense. This is
a different weapon. Congrats to the engineering team.
\_ are you really this stupid?
\_ no, i always thought of myself as "that" stupid. got any other
stupid-questions-not-worth-asking that you'd like to ask?
\_ Dear Moron, look up the work "rhetorical" in the dictionary
\_ wow pretty snappy for a freshman. were you the "smart
kid" in your high school?
\_ Clearly he didn't agree with the implied answer.
\_ What part of the article says that Reagan's "Star Wars" could never
work?
\_ the sarcasm part?
\_ the "are you really this stupid" part is that shooting down one
thing, that you fired yourself, doesn't say anything about
whether you could shoot down everything that a particular enemy
wants to shoot at you. It's obvious you can't.
\_ Ah yes, the man who could fly before he could crawl....
\_ how much does a high-tech defense laser with missile
tracking guidance system cost? how much does an artillery
shell cost?
\_ You're looking at the wrong numbers. If the laser costs
say $150m per unit but can limit the effectiveness of
enemy artillery by say 25% then it's easily worth it.
It'll break enemy morale to see their shells shot out of
the air and the technology will be useful for other
things like oh say killing 100% of enemy artillery units
in LOS for a few kilometers. Would you prefer our troops
get blasted by 100% of enemy artillery instead of 75%?
\_ are you really this stupid?
\_ Obviously the answer is yes. Why do you keep asking?
\_ "There you go again!" Do you really think this is
some sort of genius quality reply? Obviously you
must since you keep rehashing what never should
have been said the first time. Take it back to
the sandbox. The rest of us are in college or have
graduated.
\_ Except tom.
\_ you serious? tom never graduated?
\_ Where did you come up with your $150m figure? If it
was that cheap, it might be worth it. The truth is
that something like this costs Billions and won't
be coming down in price much soon. Not to mention
being far too fragile and energy consumptive for
actual combat duty.
\_ I was guestimating but I was wrong. It was $118m.
It was in one of the articles on it from slashdot.
\_ This is for ICBM, SCUDs, etc., not artillery shells. Laser
detonation of a missile was demonstrated in the '70s
\_ 70s?? URL?
\_ I did it in a top secret experiment using my grade
school science kit. If I tell you any more I will
have to kill you.
\_ Oh Jesus! I already knew that! Now that you
spilled it the MIB will be arriving at your door
step in a few moments. |
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| news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2407807.stm Tactical high energy lasers have the capacity to change the face of the battlefield US Army Lt Gen Joseph Cosumano The weapon system tracked and locked on to the shell, before firing a beam of light at the projectile and hitting it. The US Army's Space and Missile Defence Command said that "seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed". The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is being developed by the TRW Corporation for use by the US military and the Israeli Defence Ministry. Two years ago, it successfully shot down a Katyusha rocket, but in Monday's test it managed to destroy a shell moving at a higher speed. The test took place at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. Potent weapon A laser is a device that produces and amplifies light of a particular wavelength, or colour, which is then directed at a target with great accuracy. If the laser is powerful enough, it can generate very high temperatures on the spot on which the light falls, melting or vaporising the target. Military scientists are trying to develop lasers and tracking systems that can follow and hit fast-moving objects at distances ranging from tens of kilometres to, in theory, thousands of kilometres. The Israeli Government is interested in the system because Katyusha rockets are used by militant Islamic groups in attacks on Israel. The system stems in part from a commitment former US President Bill Clinton made in April 1996 to then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to aid Israel in developing a security system against rockets. Lasers were behind the space-based missile defence shield idea, labelled "Star Wars", first suggested by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The Pentagon has been working on a variety of other laser weapon technologies that could be used to shoot down ballistic missiles in flight, although deployment of such weapons is at least a decade away. |