Lasers

Boeing and BAE partner to put a laser on a machine gun, make the world a better place

“ Automated, computer-targeting machine guns are okay in a pinch, but sometimes putting 180 25mm slugs down range every minute just isn't enough. Sometimes you need a little more energy, and that's when you strap a laser on the thing. Boeing and BAE are partnering up to take the existing Mk 38 Mod 2 Machine Gun System, which offers a 25mm M242 barrel, and pair it with Boeing's directed energy system. The resulting beautiful machine is called the Mk 38 Mod 2 Tactical Laser System, offering the ability to fling both hot metal and even hotter photons against whatever targets would dare come in range. This integration is said to allow for these upgraded turrets to be easily installed and controlled on our naval vessels, vessels that are, for now, still stuck on the water. Apparently we're still a few years away from the Wave Motion Engine and FTL battleship travel. ” A safer place, yes.  If the Obama administration doesn't cut funding.  "The One" that just said "Billions for Food Stamps but not one penny for defense."  And we still won't be nearly as safe as if Boeing been allowed to take the last steps in its Airborne Laser program.  The futuristic weapon, conceived to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles not long after they blast off, stayed on the drawing board in the early 1990s. Then, it survived an effort to slash its funding at the end of the Clinton administration. And in 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gutted the program, telling Congress, "There's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept." Right Gates.  And who in the military will risk their career to contradict you?  "Oh look, we just shot down a missle, too bad it doesn't work!"  Consider that Obama has spent what, $7 trillion?- $12 trillion? on social engineering in just his first two years.  All told, the Pentagon has spent around $5.2 billion on this project since 1996, according to the Missile Defense Agency, the Pentagon unit responsible for the program. Here's a short video courtesy of my  WSJ  source.   And please, don't get me started on the F-22 again.