Message posted by gary on February 17, 2002 at 13:53:42 PST:
I'm speculating that this "new" laser is some offshoot of the Stars Wars anti-missile laser. [My favorite star wars toy because it violates no treaties, but hey, I don't run the show.] At the Edwards AFB open house, they show photos of that laser, and it is huge. Unless there is some advancement in the works, I don't think they can put a serious metal cutting laser on a small fighter. There have been paper designs of lasers to be used to blind pilots, but I believe we signed a treaty or unilaterally indicated we would not make such a weapon. A few years ago I monitored a Western Air Defense Sector (WADS, aka Bigfoot) exercise in which some sort of laser was being tested. It was not clear if the laser was used as a weapon, or simply for targetting. What did happen is a pilot got temporarily blinded by a laser (or that was the drill), though he eventually recovered. A bit off topic, but naming the radio system BIGFOOT causes lots of useless hits when doing internet searches. There is a similar east coast system which goes under the name Giant Killer. When active, these systems are used for really wide range air exercises, with distributed repeater sites.
In Reply to: Re: New "tool" for AC-130 gunships. posted by Recker on February 17, 2002 at 13:37:30 PST:
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