The future of warfare is very very near. We're already seeing in Iraq and Afganistan autonomous drones that can loiter over combat for 24 hours and Humvee mounted microwave beams that can heat up the surface of the human skin. The Air Force also wants to develop laser gunships to replace AC-130s for precision ground...um...lasering. And now the Air Force's Airborne Laser program has reached a historic milestone in its quest to bring warfare into the 21st century when it achieved "first light" and fired its high-energy chemical laser during a ground test September 7th at Edwards AFB. The Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency are very optimistic about the future of the YAL-1 program and what it will mean for future combat. The prototype has been in testing for quite some time now and has had success in firing its beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin. This has all lead up to the big ray gun (aka chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL)) developed by Northrop Grumman which is mounted on the modified 747-400F produced by Boeing. The multi-contractor team and the Air Force are moving one step closer with the recent test towards its first missile shoot-down demonstration scheduled for 2009. After that, perhaps the Defense Department should look into an Imperial Death Star for it's next futuristic weapon.
[Boeing]
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Monday, September 8, 2008
ABL Fires High Energy Laser For First Time
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Holy Crap! Glad to see Uncle Sam is finally using my tax dollars to create the Sci-Fi Army of Doom the media has been promising me since the turn of the century, if only they had listened and invested Tesla’s death ray when they had the chance. We could be flying our X-wings into combat today.
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