Real Genius: Airborne Laser Zaps Ground Target

It's like lasing a stick of dynamite.

During the test, the C-130H aircraft took off from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and fired its high-power chemical laser through its beam control system while flying over White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The beam control system acquired the ground target -- an unoccupied stationary vehicle -- and guided the laser beam to the target, as directed by ATL's battle management system. The laser beam's energy defeated the vehicle.

As this test proves, the Laser has huge potential as a tool for assassination. Lasers have the potential to zap individual bad guys without causing the same kind of collateral damage as a Hellfire missile or small-diameter bomb.

I wish it were still ultra-secret. An invisible laser bursting an inconvenient mullah into a pillar of fire would have been a nice touch, n'est-ce pas?

Still: I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say I'm pretty sure that lasers are being researched that will induce heart attacks, strokes, deadly seizures, aneurysms, and other "natural causes."

And we're going to be blamed for such things anyway so we might as well indulge. Five years from now they'll be talking about the Israeli "AIDS beam" they zapped Arafat with.

posted by Ace at 03:02 PM

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