This Is How Boeing’s Airborne Laser Takes Out Ground Targets
You might remember that the US Air Force and Boeing have equipped a C-130 plane with an Advanced Tactical Laser for initial air-to-air tests. In September it was aimed at a ground target — the “defeated” truck in this video:
The parked truck’s hood and engine gets burned through like butter, and as you can see, the accuracy is pretty amazing. The laser can produce between 100-300kW of power, and the obvious next step is to trial it on moving targets.
Even though the Air Force has scaled back the ambitious program’s funding, perhaps we may still see the laser make it to battlefields. Maybe on the 76m Long Hybrid Airship Will Spy Over Afghanistan Battlefields in 2011? [Boeing via PopSci]
Pew pew
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I find it incredibly hard to believe that such accuracy on a ground target (in this case – the truck) was achieved using an airborne object… but it’s just been proven in the video. Let’s just hope we can actually see the plane in the next demo? haha.
pew pew!