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'Star Wars' laser weapons on jets by 2020


UM-Bot

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The US Air Force is planning to equip its planes with high-tech laser weapons within only five years.

The laser blasters of the Star Wars universe might seem light years ahead of today's technology, but according to the US Air Force it won't be long before we start to see real-life laser weapons being used by jet aircraft to take down targets during actual military operations.

Read More: http://www.unexplain...on-jets-by-2020

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150KW laser is going to need a Kick-Ass battery, I hope that the charger doesn't overheat!!

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As a Star Wars geek, I disagree with the use of Star Wars to describe laser weapons. Since almost all weapons in the Star Wars sci-fi universe are "blaster" weapons, which fire a energized ionized packet of particles, which travel only a little over the speed of sound.

Still, I find the use of lasers to be kind of cool. I think the point defense usage will be much more effective then trying to use huge lasers on ground targets.

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Still, I find the use of lasers to be kind of cool. I think the point defense usage will be much more effective then trying to use huge lasers on ground targets.

I think you are right about its use being mostly for point defence......... and that lasers are cool !

The reason why lasers are unlikely to have wider applications are three-fold:

1. Laser beams scatter when they pass through the air and loses its power quite rapidly. It has troble penetrating fog and smoke, even clouds diminish the power of a laser.

2. Laser beams can only stay focused over limited distances and after that they will get less and less concentrated. Increasing the range of the laser beam means increasing the size of the mirror and this quickly becomes so big that it is not really viable as a portable weapon anymore.

3. Lasers require a lot of energy to deliver a usefull punch. Its fine if you have access to the powergrid or your own power plant, but there is no real way to make a power system that is compact enough to deliver large amounts of power, from something that could be carried in a fighter jet.

The most powerfull flying laser yet required a full Boing 747 to carry it and even then it was deemed much too weak to be viable. https://en.wikipedia...ki/Boeing_YAL-1

I believe we might see lasers as point defence systems on major warships and for the defence of high value targets such as airfields. In such cases range and size are not as much of a factor and it becomes more doable. Afterall the laser has one huge advantage compared to missiles and guns in the it travels at the speed of light, so essentially there is no way of outrunning or outmaneuvering a laser.

Edited by Noteverythingisaconspiracy
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I think this will be very useful when it comes to space travel and avoiding space debris. Well actually it wouldn't work in space would it? Shame all our government would think of is weapons of course.

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I think this will be very useful when it comes to space travel and avoiding space debris. Well actually it wouldn't work in space would it? Shame all our government would think of is weapons of course.

Lasers do indeed have great potential for space travel and debris removal. In fact lasers work better in space because there is no athmosphere.

One thing about lasers in space is that they are actually invisible. When you see laser in science fiction movies they would not be visible in the real world, but thats fine by me anyway because of the "rule of cool". :tu:

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The Navy did use a huge laser to blast an incoming (dummy) missile last year I think. So the military does have huge lasers, and probably ways to power them. But they aren't well suited to rigorous battlefield conditions in my opinion. They need a big platform like a big ship, or military installation to function properly.

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