Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Washington D.C. — As if autonomous drones launching Hellfire missiles at targets acquired through the collection of metadata weren’t horrifying enough, the US military now has its own death rays — no kidding.
Since the days of Nikola Tesla, and his plans of a death ray, the up and coming military industrial complex has salivated over the idea of direct energy weapons. For pennies, the US could lay waste to their enemies instead of using highly expensive missile systems. However, this technology and the resources to build it remained elusive — until now.
Directed energy weapons (DEWs) are systems that emit energy without the means of a projectile, and can use visible light, infra-red or microwave radiation, with lethal effects.
The weapons are said to be particularly useful for targeting large numbers of targets with high precision, and some estimates put the cost of each shot of directed energy at just $1.
“The technologies now exist,” said Paul Shattuck, company director for Directed Energy Systems. “They can be packaged into a size, weight, power and thermal which can be fit onto relevant tactical platforms, whether it’s a ship, whether it’s a ground vehicle or whether it’s an airborne platform.
“So everything exists today,” he said, “it’s just a question of the desire and when is that going to occur.”
Lockheed Martin has already shown the deadly accuracy of these weapons in tests. In milliseconds, one of their 30 KW laser weapons will melt a hole through solid steel.
When Defense News asked Lockheed Martin if they came to them tomorrow and asked for a laser weapon in the 30 KW range, the company said yes.
According to Defense News, that doesn’t mean that giant city-melting lasers are on their way. Right now, the weapons are limited to the 15-30 KW scale; going much further requires figuring out how to deal with atmospheric interference, an issue which becomes more complicated with weapons mounted on airborne systems.
However, Lockheed said that making a larger laser is similar to building out computer servers — Once you figure out how to connect them all, you can add more power by adding another server. The same is true for the laser weapons: you add more power slots into the rack and increase its power.
Just last year, the company held a demonstration at which they took out unmanned systems from over a mile away, melted a car engine, and sank a boat.
While they have only mastered the 30 KW system, Lockheed Martin says they are on track to deliver a 60 KW laser for the Army by the end of the year.
On one side of the issue, there is a bit of relief when taking into account the collateral damage associated with the U.S. military’s “surgical” drone strikes. However, the idea of such a powerful weapon in the hands of any government willing to go to war is terrifying.
Imagine the deadly capabilities running rampant in America’s kill-happy police state. The CIA could target domestic “terrorists” from miles away and burn holes through their heads without the need for any due process. Militaries could silently target a nuclear reactor and cause a Chernobyl-type event in seconds, and no one would know who did it. Enemies of the state could be wiped out silently and simultaneously without any evidence of what happened. Planes could be zapped out of the sky. The dangers are limitless.
Of course, the Pentagon is touting the “defense” capabilities of such weapons. However, with America’s track record in spreading death and destruction, the blacked-out apocalyptic sky is the limit.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/modern-warfare-changed-laser-weapons-ready-today/#xgdFHCt4wfz2V30o.99
So far these look like big, clumsy weapons that will be extremely expensive to build and maintain. They can only do line-of-sight targeting and will probably have problems operating in poor weather. They may be more easily detected and located than other weapons for much the same reason that tracers shot from a rifle work both ways.
Above all, high-tech weapons like this are often much less useful in urban terrain than out in the open, and cities are where most of the key battles of the future will probably be fought.
Same junk we already were shown and was built in 1964!!!!!! Yawn. We even mounted the same system on in an M-113 Gavin. They also said it was “ready to go” in 1964. Liberty1775
Modern warfare changed when that first monkey in that movie 2001 space oddessey.
Figured out how to use that stick as a tool to kill the other monkey.
Like I said.
Never trust a monkey.
Poo or semen, flee? Either way, the monkey is a flingin’ it! Don’t care for them and there is a place in this world for all of God’s creatures with me…
next to the potatoes on my plate 🙂
Dude.. you should google the trunk monkey videos.
Just hillarious!
Gotta have a laugh between the madness.
I gotta make fun of this stuff.
If I don’t I’ll go insane.
Then I’ll be throwing poo at you.
Then eating my own crap.
Lol! Will do that and choking on oxygen here as you are a spun monkey and not sure what I’ll see?! That was a compliment btw. I don’t fraternize with those of the so called “normal” persuasion anyway. They’re f’n nuts.