While that may look like an interstellar insect explaining the new “rules of the game” to Earth’s terrified leaders, it’s actually an airborne weapons system with the capability of tracking and frying fast-moving objects. So totally harmless:
The Pentagon’s premier “directed energy” weapons system is a missile-zapping laser that could someday soon be tooling around in a modified 747… The plane isn’t yet equipped with the “megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam” weapons system; that work is slated for sometime later this year. The Pentagon says the chemical laser has had 70 successful firings (on the ground, that is) over the past three years, and it is preparing for what it hopes will be the first takedown of a ballistic missile target in mid-2009… “We are going to put that big laser in the back…and then we’re ready to shoot a missile down,” [said] Air Force Col. John Daniels, program director.
We dunno. It still looks like a hostile space ant to us. And what’s more – you agree with us.
References:
* Political battles over the Airborne Laser [Crave]
Previously:
* Uhh… Did You Know That China Used ASATs Against The US?
* Neat! Experiment Spectacularly and Productively Fails To Explain Problems With Physics
* Neat: Ancient Pyramid Found… In Europe
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