Lasers are alluring as weapons, but they are really crotchety devices to care for, to the point where they are kind-of-useless as weapons. It's like taking your mother-in-law into battle: theoretically lethal, but only theoretically. But maybe that's changing:
In the test, which took place last week, the laser gun was mounted to the deck of the retired Naval destroyer Paul Foster and fired on a small target vessel.
A video of the test, released by the Office of Naval Research, shows a spark on one of the boat’s motors as it bobs in the ocean and, within seconds, is engulfed in flames. It was a milestone, because all previous tests of the laser were on firm ground, Carr said.
...For years, technical challenges have plagued scientists’ weapon development of a solid-state laser. Northrop has worked to develop the laser system at its Space Park campus in Redondo Beach under a $98-million contract that it won in July 2009.
The campus is also the site where Northrop engineers have worked on the Airborne Laser Test Bed, a missile defense program that involves a massive laser gun outfitted on a heavily modified Boeing 747. It has taken nearly 15 years and at least $4 billion to develop the chemical laser technology.
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