Laser cannon being tested against land mines

[Sadico 1]

http://europe.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

Only works with surface laid mines, though.

[Warin 0]

The US Army kills me. I bet this system costs more per shot than a whole platoon of combat engineers would to clear the entire minefield!

Sometimes I think the military needs to look at all this gee whiz technology and stop and say 'What's the point?' rather than being gung ho just because it's cool. When it comes to expenditrures like this, I dont think the 'Oooh, a blinking light!' theory works well

[USSoldier11B 0]

I think laser technology could be very useful in warfare and is worth developing. I will mourn the day that internal combustion projectile weapons are a thing of the past though.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Set phasers on Deep Fry, Sarge.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ July 12 2002,03:14)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I think laser technology could be very useful in warfare and is worth developing. I will mourn the day that internal combustion projectile weapons are a thing of the past though.<span id='postcolor'>

I have to agree that it's worth developing. But this seems like a rather silly scheme.

I cant see laser weapons replacing good old fashion slug throwers anytime soon. Right now most high output lasers cols 100's, if not thousands of times as much per shot as a KE weapon. That's why to me this is rather hair brained. Land mine clearing is still, I would think, much cheaper and easier when done by engineers trained to do it. And I suspect that to a porperly trained engineer, it's not as dangerous as it would be to some villager.

See my point?

[ralphwiggum 6]

duh, US Army.

spend money,spend money,spend money,spend money,spend money.

on serious note, i think this is a worthwhile attempt. although few will be gained from this, the knowledges will be usefull somehow.

[Jester983 0]

Hmm seems really interesting. But i think i have to agree with warin on this. A well trained enginer could get it done without having to spend all this money. But heck, as long as it works and they keep using it in the future then itll be worth the money but if it doesnt then that will just be a waste of time/money. Time and money that could be used to develop bigger and better things.

[scout 0]

Israel and the US had developed a laser cannon that can shoot down rockets on ballistic flight such as katyushas and SRBMs. it works fine and no other weapon system can do it as good as this.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (scout @ July 12 2002,06:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Israel and the US had developed a laser cannon that can shoot down rockets on ballistic flight such as katyushas and SRBMs. it works fine and no other weapon system can do it as good as this.<span id='postcolor'>

See, there is a good application for the technology.

The cost/benefit ratio is high enough to make it worthwhile. SRBM's cost enough that using a chemical laser to shoot them down makes sense. Using a similar laser system to blow up a single landmine doesnt make a lot of sense, really.

Like anything..there are sensible applications, and then the things that make you shake your head and say 'What the hell are they thinking!'

[Stag 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Warin @ July 11 2002,05:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The US Army kills me.  I bet this system costs more per shot than a whole platoon of combat engineers would to clear the entire minefield!  

Sometimes I think the military needs to look at all this gee whiz technology and stop and say 'What's the point?' rather than being gung ho just because it's cool.  When it comes to expenditrures like this, I dont think the 'Oooh, a blinking light!' theory works well <span id='postcolor'>

Lasers, at least battlefield lasers are very new technology. Granted, the ability to blow up a single landmine at a time doesn't sound very impressive, but I would say that it's promising enough to warrant further research.

At the beginning of the last century, something new appeared which appeared to have limited military use. It had plenty of opponents who believed that funding would be better used elsewhere. One of its supporters demonstrated the possbilities by using flour bombs against the outline of a battleship drawn on the ground.

Since then, aircraft have got a bit better.

Fixing typos.

[second_draw 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Warin @ July 12 2002,02:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The US Army kills me.  I bet this system costs more per shot than a whole platoon of combat engineers would to clear the entire minefield!  

Sometimes I think the military needs to look at all this gee whiz technology and stop and say 'What's the point?' rather than being gung ho just because it's cool.  When it comes to expenditrures like this, I dont think the 'Oooh, a blinking light!' theory works well <span id='postcolor'>

IMO, this is the sort of logic that stops any sort of technological advance. Sort of saying i'll leave it to someone else to do all the research. The US is cleverly taking the initiative to develop this technology and too see if in the future this technology could go further. Anyway, noone said this technology had to be widespread intergrated.

[MDRZulu 0]

Why dont they just shoot the mines with a regular gun? and then they can test out their lasers on more worthwhile subjects like dead cows and buildings.

[ralphwiggum 6]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (MDRZulu @ July 12 2002,09:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Why dont they just shoot the mines with a regular gun? and then they can test out their lasers on more worthwhile subjects like dead cows and buildings.<span id='postcolor'>

that's more like aliens's method....

[KingBeast 0]

Sounds like a great idea to me. Sure, sending in regular engineers would be more effective, but believe it or not plenty of engineers still die when disarming mines. If it saves lives, then it cant be all that bad.

[EveronVetsAgainstTheWar 1]

One small step for man, one giant leap until light sabers are implemented in the military...