Silent, invisible, deadly. The powerful ATHENA laser weapon can destroy enemy threats within seconds. It just destroyed five Outlaw drones.
For the United States, thanks to pioneering efforts of American companies like Lockheed Martin and the military, laser weapons are no longer the stuff of Star Wars and Star Trek.
In near-term future battles, the U.S. military can choose to bring laser weapons mounted on vehicles, vessels, and more, to war. By comparison, the weapons of any enemy will look like bows and arrows.
ATHENA, (Advanced Test High Energy Asset), is one of the most exciting of these new American laser weapons. During recent testing with the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the 30-kilowatt weapon slayed five Outlaw drones. Not toy hobby sized drones, but drones with nearly 11 foot wingspans.
>shitty low power laser that has to be on target for 5 minutes to cut through 1 tail fin What's the supposed advantege of this over conventional SAM or even old shitty WW2 antiaircraft but with radar guidance?
Elijah Reyes
less wasteful on resources i'd imagine. its a weapon for the nu-male fags that get a hard on for going green and watching their mothers get pegged by niggers in drag.
Charles Nelson
How long until chink traitors leak this weapon to their commie fatherland?
Jaxon Hernandez
Imagine the battery size and the amount of power needed just to shoot down one drone. I don't think it's advantageous in terms of resources. HE shells for shitty anti aircraft cannons are probably cheaper to manufacture and far easier to supply a mobile army with
Nathaniel Perez
KeK can confirm, laser technology is here.
Easton Mitchell
T. Brainlets
Dylan Johnson
yeah but can it get me a coke?
Luke Lopez
no i never said it would cost less, it would be less physical resources, just like socialism where it doesn't cost less and its less effective, but it gets their cuck hearts going like nobody can believe.
Charles Powell
>yfw Nibiru/Planet X is the death star
Alexander Phillips
piew piew finally the future where we all shoot each other with lazors is here!!!
Josiah Sanders
They're still following the iterative process.
You don't end up with the end-game immediately. It'll be refined upon over and over again.
Depending on the routes they choose to go, you could end up with a space platform with near infinite range and near instantaneous travel.
Austin Robinson
The warrior goddess strikes again!
She permeates so much of our culture to those with eyes to see.
Blake Nguyen
>naming weapons after gods What is hubris.
Benjamin Sullivan
True I can see the advantage of an ultra long range concept in space, but on Earth lasers tend to disperse fairly quickly due to the athmosphere, no?
Brody Jackson
those digits
Ayden Lopez
Laser is very ineffective in terms of energy spent to damage done. It has some applications like intercepting missiles or drones but i dont know how it can replace conventional weapons.
muh ar15 can overthrow the gubbeme. Oh shit ahhhhhhhh
Just wait till they build a better one which instantly fries you. I'll like to see rebels coordinate with that and facial recognition cams everywhere
John Smith
It doesn't cost millions to fire so it is already cost effective over missiles
Jaxon Miller
What can an American know about hubris
Easton King
>the weapons of any enemy will look like bows and arrows Game over for Kim Jong-un
Henry Cox
why are you people so obsessed with nigger cocks anyway
Evan Hernandez
How much did it cost the taxpayer to fire a oversized laser pointer? Why not just use,I dunno, AA guns?
Camden Rivera
>Advanced weapon that makes all other weapons look like bows and arrows >easily defeated by a cloud Why are americans this stupid?
Camden Davis
Fuck, can't someone compartmentalize it for use against infantry? Lasguns here we come! but at most they'll probably get a laser based sniper rifle
Luke Adams
>cams cut the power?
Jason Butler
>detect position on targeting system
>fire laser with near instant travel time
hmmmmmmmm
Easton Clark
The C&C is real.
Blake Miller
Lasers?
Gabriel Davis
>Fuck, can't someone compartmentalize it for use against infantry? we already have truck mounted microwave guns, have had them since the 90s
Joshua Lee
Indeed, leaf. No idea why russians keep memeing about energy efficiency while developing similar weapons themselves.
Jose Sanchez
I don't think it would be reliable, you need at least 1 minute of exposition and while (even if it's already a retard concept) an airborne vehicle cannot get cover if it's a clear day, a soldier can just, I dunno, duck behind a brick wall in 5 secs.
Matthew Howard
>missiles
>vulnerable to chaff
tell me how you defend against a fucking instant laser beam.
Jack Jones
>cuts through an engine block in seconds It's only a photo, it's not shown how the engine is cut through, it's propably from a short distance. Yeah, a "big not as much as you expected"-burger.
Lucas Roberts
>detect position on targeting system >fire laser with near instant time travel >laser only heats up clouds somewhat >targets keeps going to its objective unopposed Hmmm indeed
This system would only work in places like the middle east. But guess what, those people don't have any drones to shoot down.
Brody White
...
Jackson Jones
But everyone wants lasers that go PEW PEW If they manage to keep the power output high then I theorize that a directed laser might paralyze the person it's aiming for because it will interact/burn away the nerves along the spine or head thus preventing them to move or crippling them for life. It's the perfect sniper rifle. >quiet >efficient >maybe not deadly but it can get ruin a politician or two >no bullets >no muzzle flash(but I guess a tracer is possible)
Julian Sanders
>Not sending Muslims to hell with baconized hellfire missiles. It's like you lost your taste for genocide. What Ethiopia still got your balls m
Jackson Thomas
shields
Sebastian Wilson
laser has many applications
planes could use it to literally carve up defense positions, not just kill people.
Jason Gutierrez
reflection the frequencies of the lasers
Hunter Anderson
Magneto-electric energy diffusers? We Star Trek now.
Jordan Peterson
at ease, abdul. just repeating what is reported. even if it is from a short distance that is still pretty impressive if it is not exaggerated.
James Davis
> but everyone wants lasers that go PEW PEW I want lasers that go VVRRAAAAAAH, a steady beam makes it feel more powerful
Liam Howard
It's not because it'd require more energy than possible to cram into a single laser.
Christian Jones
No travel time? Energy being the only resource spent? Probably not as easy to detect?
Blake Murphy
It's an American thing.
Robert Davis
the Prototype for a Real-Life Death Star?
Connor Bennett
now imagine satellites with this tech
we're talking orbital ion cannons.
Brody Hill
Read more, clouds and fog has already been solved. Did you know that when it's cloudy the sun's light passes through? And that is just a small part of the electomagnetic spectrum.
Elijah Mitchell
I think the power supply and cooling of the thing is going to be a problem if you want to get it airborne.
This laser is probably in the range of 1MW, which is a shitton, even if it's pulsed.
Carter Lee
Conventional energy "Shields" are still rather hypothetical (as far as i know), but i'm definitely sure Polarized Hull Plating is not. Definitely the best bet.
Adam Smith
oh yea that sounds nice
Christian Nelson
>just repeating what is reported Lack of critical thinking, what a surprise. >Abdul With a 56% chance I'm talking to a non-white. Fuck off Jamal.
Jack Howard
> orbital ion cannons = fuck your ICBMs
Owen Morgan
putting anything like that on a satellite would be physically impossible. even on the ISS there's not enough space for mounting one of those to operate in space. Cool, but physics' telling you to fuck off real hard
I know that the suns light passes through clouds, but I also know that a lot of this light is either reflected, absorbed or scattered. All of which are fatal for such a weapon.
Brandon Nelson
Imaguessat: Less/non detectable on radar both on aircraft and on ground Low visibility No traces/hallmarks of weapon origin Avaids conventional anti-missile tech
Nolan Cook
>30kw imagine what that sounds like, the worst high-pitched screech in your life
Bentley Barnes
What if we used JJ Physics instead?
Noah Ortiz
Well except that these weapons have been successfully tested in heavy fog. They are using multiple lasers, it isn't just a fancy flashlight.
Nicholas Reed
>laser >sound
Grayson Cooper
>not enough space for mounting one of those to operate in space. Then why not tweak it a bit? I'm sure someone can just take the firing mechanism and barrel glue it to a random sat that's be restructured to function as a giant solar batter and storage. The sun would charge it. If not then why not make a sat that's like a giant magnifying glass and aim the sun's ray at enemies?
Sebastian Jenkins
let the tech develop, and it will get more efficient and the hardware required will shrink.
Alexander Cox
I guess if someone's aiming that thing at your head but I doubt lasers make any discharge sounds.
Juan Walker
Virgin missile VS Laser Chad when?
Ryder Davis
>solary batter woops ment battery
Jackson King
mobile laser "tanks" could work, if not planes.
Adrian Flores
does anyone know effective range? or where to read up, interesting shit
Adrian Miller
god I wish someone would just kill me instantly with a laser beam
I need one of these for my backyard. My neighbor keeps flying his shitty drone over my house. I take potshots at it with my pellet gun, but it doesnt have enough range.
Ryan Morales
>Outlaw drones
Cameron Morris
no need to be so upset, abdul. i'm sure your frustrations will subside after your next prayer session. remember, mecca is to the south east.
Brayden Long
They know that
Wyatt Thomas
>Polarized Hull Plating is not. Definitely the best bet. Guess the cyborgs, vehicles or buildings of the future better be molded with that otherwise they won't last long against a laser. youtube.com/watch?v=5gT0ej86lwU
Mason Green
>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmastra No it wasn't. Oppenheimer just had a hard on for Hindu/Sanskrit teachings, just like some of the Reich.
And before you mention the quote about it being the first nuke in modern memory, he was referring to the big bang/crunch and early universe, not a bomb.
John Cruz
They don't, as it is light. The trigger or power supply might make a sound, but that's it as far as i know. However, if fired through the atmosphere it should act like lightning, causing thunder as it interacts with the gases around it.
Jordan Martin
because the amount of capacitance required to fire one those fuckers is absolutely out of reach for satellite operation. The amount of hardware required to fire one of those things has already been shrunk o fit in a truck, and that's a miracle in and of itself As for optical satellites lenses mounted on satellites, there's many reasons why it's really hard to do, starting from having a focal point ~600 to 800 km in distance, to having a lot of the focused radiation get absorbed by the atmosphere, to having to mount a gargantuan lens or mirror in space or even launching it. If it was easy, it would have been done already. There are physical limits that require complete designs overhaul and completely different technology to go smaller, and that still doesn't mean it's going to make it magically more space-friendly. Call back when we find out that a layer of ozone at supercritical conditions contacting with germanium can cause electron release at specific frequencies or some shit
Jaxon Ross
...
Ayden Kelly
planes may not be practical yet but I can see big ass tank designs with huge power cells/generators being a thing, escorted and protected while they rape shit from the ground.
ah that makes sense >causing thunder as it interacts with the gases around it Wasn't there a bible quote saying that "Satan was falling to the Earth like lightning"? biblehub.com/luke/10-18.htm Dang, it's never easy, is it?
Hudson Butler
checked, Satan is among us
Austin Martin
Ok kids, this is nothing new. Pull up FAS or the wikijew and look up the following, in service, laser weapons fielded by both us and Israel.
>>Boeing YAL 747 >>THEL (tactical high energy laser, etd 05, targets even artillery shells. Put an M in front and you've got a hummvee version. >>user mentioned microwave trucks from the 90s already. Lasers were just the next step.
What's really cool is living in the desert not too far away from seeing where they launch this shit.
