Apparently the USN has successfully used a shipborne laser gun to ignite the engines of a small craft
some distance away. The funniest part to me is they said that the technnology could be used to
disable small craft attacking a ship.

Derh...so does LEAD, doofi.


"http://news.search.yahoo.com/search?cs=bz&p=Laser+gun&fr=fp-tts-701&fr2=ps
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Yeah, but guns that fire lead don't go "PEW! PEW! PEW!"

:-)
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The laser takes fewer to fire, has very little storage for its "ammo" requirements and is way more accurate in delivery than conventional lead ammo.

Long ago, I was in a meeting at Boeing where an air force general was asking us what it would take to build a field-deployable EMP system. One of the engineers in the room more or less said that it was pretty easy to do, but that it rapidly got very difficult if you didn't want to disable the friendlies.
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Adam, you are on a frickin' roll, today. :-)
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Don't encourage him. :-)
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Field testing of the gun is found on youtube here.
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Haha, yeah, I guess accuracy with no kentucky windage or gravity IS a real benefit.
But lead works well and is a lot cheaper, hahaha.
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But if you target the pirates and they have a burn hole in the forehead, it can be blamed on hostile aliens. Plausible deniability.:-)
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No windage, but atmospheric diffusion, distortion and energy loss had to be overcome. The big guns are fun, but you don't need a 5 inch 35 round to take out those little motorboats the pirates are using.
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I come from the ground forces side of things but could you use something like a dragon to take out the small pirate boats or is the sea too rough for any sort of accuracy?
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Of course, Darren, I was thinking more of Quad 50's maybe......Laser-aimed Vulcan cannon, perhaps.
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the transformer video was nice!
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I'd like to see the pirates drown at sea with a hole in the boat and leave it at that.
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The Vulcan, on which the CIWS is based, fires 100 20mm rounds per second, IIRC. That would make it more expensive and reduce the likelihood of survivors to interrogate. Besides, there is a definite coolness factor.



"Laser"
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Quad-50's are so 1958. GAU-19, baby! You might as well stand still, because if you run, you're just going to die tired!

(the problem with the lead solution is that by the time they are in range, you're in range too. )
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How much extra for the Persian cat?
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:-) :-) :-) :-)
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The Navy can shoot down a satellite traveling at 17,000 mph, 300 miles straight up from the rolling and pitching decks of a Destroyer; accuracy isn't a problem, range is. If a target is within range of a man-portable Dragon, so are you. Ideally, you want to engage a target while you are still out of range of his weapons.
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Image
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Mew mew mew?
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