LASER weapon ignites boat

[Coito ergo sum]

Nice! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13033437

[klr]

I was wondering how long it it would take this to be posted, and who would do it. Ian, Zilla: Shame on you both!

I read elsewhere that the gun doesn't work well in the rain.

[Coito ergo sum]

Work in process, my friend. Work in process.

Somewhere around 1980 I watched a 60 minutes episode about the boondoggle Tomahawk Missile Program that "would never work." Needless to say, not only did the Tomahawk work, but it still works, and we even have better guided weapons than that now.

Ever since then, I have known to not place too much stock in naysayers.

[klr]

Work in process, my friend. Work in process.

Somewhere around 1980 I watched a 60 minutes episode about the boondoggle Tomahawk Missile Program that "would never work." Needless to say, not only did the Tomahawk work, but it still works, and we even have better guided weapons than that now.

Ever since then, I have known to not place too much stock in naysayers.

Oh, I'm not suggesting that it doesn't have promise, but it obviously still needs a bit of work ... and ships will probably still need to have CIWS and various other conventional small arms as back-up.

[AshtonBlack]

I was reading an article on this recently. That's a low powered proof of concept. Most definitely watch this space. :-)

[PsychoSerenity]

Setting fire to an outboard is hardly impressive. You could do that with a good magnifying glass.

[Ian]

Ah, coolness!
And you're right klr, it's shameful that I didn't post this first. Advances in weapon systems, particularly naval and space-related, is a VERY big interest of mine.

[Geoff]

I was wondering how long it it would take this to be posted, and who would do it. Ian, Zilla: Shame on you both!

I read elsewhere that the gun doesn't work well in the rain.

http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 34#p816134

[klr]

I was wondering how long it it would take this to be posted, and who would do it. Ian, Zilla: Shame on you both!

I read elsewhere that the gun doesn't work well in the rain.

http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 34#p816134

Although I had already seen it on The Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/11 ... boat_burn/

[JimC]

The boat was drifting rather than under power, though admittedly it was moving a lot with the sea...

A more difficult but also more impressive feat would be disabling small boats moving at speed, particularly directly towards a your ship...

[klr]

The boat was drifting rather than under power, though admittedly it was moving a lot with the sea...

A more difficult but also more impressive feat would be disabling small boats moving at speed, particularly directly towards a your ship...

Meh. No problem - they just haven't integrated it with the requisite target tracking technology yet. And since light moves rather fast, it would be much easier to hit a moving target than with a cannon shell or missile that travels (at most) at a few thousand km/s. There would be no need to allow for deflection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflection_%28military%29

Now, we just need some Somali pirates to take part in an "operational test" ...

[FBM]

It also took a while to actually make a sizeable fire. If only there were a quicker, cheaper, low-tech way to punch a hole in something at a distance, whether it's moving or not.

[Geoff]

Now, we just need some Somali pirates to take part in an "operational test" ...

This is the merkins, remember...they'll test it on a friendly ship...