If this sounds like a rapid pace of development for the ultimate in science fiction weaponry, there are two major explanations why the Navy thinks the future makes a pew-pew-pew noise. The first is technological. The second is bureaucratic.
From a technological perspective, the Navy thinks maritime laser weapons finally represent a proven, mature technology. The key point came last April, when the Navy put a test laser firing a (relatively weak) 15-kilowatt beam aboard a decommissioned destroyer. Never before had a laser cannon at sea disabled an enemy vessel. But the Martime Laser Demonstrator cut through choppy California waters, an overcast sky and salty sea air to burn through the outboard engine of a moving motorboat a mile away. You can see video of the successful demonstration above.
The bureaucratic reason has to do with a decision inside the Office of Naval Research to focus its laser efforts with laser-like precision. For over a decade, it’s dreamed of creating a massive, scalable laser weapon, called the Free Electron Laser, that can generate up to a megawatt’s worth of blast power. Currently, the laser blasts 14 kilowatts of light — think 140 lamps, all shining in the same direction and at the same wavelength. A hundred kilowatts is considered militarily useful; a megawatt beam would burn through 20 feet of steel in a single second.
Lab tests have pleased the Navy, if not Congress. In December 2010, the Office of Naval Research fired a shot with 33 megajoules of energy, a world record, sending a 23-pound bullet 5500 feet in a single second. The Senate Armed Services Committee still found the science too impractical, and recommended killing the railgun, until a Navy congressional counterstrike revived the program.
They've been working on these for decades, but just like every other weapon, the USA will get it first then sell it only when they make something more deadly. They really need to reduce funding for the military, they've spent trillions on weapons over the past decade.
a megawatt beam would burn through 20 feet of steel in a single second
I don't think the Japanese are building their super robots out of steel, American Military Types. Probably some sort of pure, concentrated moe alloy. How fast do you think your laser beams will work on THAT!?
Once the Tsundere Super Robot Pilot Initiative is in Phase 9 were are all doomed.
Lieutenant Commander of the Lesbian Love Brigade
There can only be one, like in that foreign movie where there could only be one, and in the end there is only one dude left, because that was the point.
You know what's great about designing military weapons?
At some stage the other side is going to get their hands on some through the black market. And this is exactly what we need the terrorists and etc etc to have in their hands. Railguns.
You know what's great about designing military weapons?
At some stage the other side is going to get their hands on some through the black market. And this is exactly what we need the terrorists and etc etc to have in their hands. Railguns.
Not a problem if Arnold Schwarzenegger erases them first.
Puns like that don't write themselves, folks. It's hard work.
BEST THREAD EVER future of NL >:3
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Topic: U.S. army testing laserguns and railguns what's next
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