re: The US successfully tested a laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight

Missile command

That's like some shite out of a video game. That's awesome.

Meh. They'll just use it to further harass goat-herders instead of the real enemies of the US citizenry.

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Can it destroy a rocket/missile mid air?

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Presumably. But those travel at extreme speeds which makes them harder to hit.

Yep, a lot of people do not realize that China wouldn’t have icbm capability without the clintons.

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I realize that, but nothing manmade (as far as missiles/rockets/general munition) has even come close to the speed of light.

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My Google search that pinged Texas and took .4 seconds says otherwise.

You don't shoot ICBMs when they are a mile away.

At 300 miles you need to lead by about... 52ft... Rough math of course

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Can it destroy a rocket/missile mid air?

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Of course. We have technology that can destroy inbound missiles in flight by detecting where the missile is, where it's going, and then using all that info combined with the calculated trajectory and flight time of an outbound bullet to swivel and track the inbound missile just right to point a goddamned Gatling gun so that the cloud of lead it throws is perfectly timed to arrive at the same point in space (which is several miles away) at the same instant the missile does.



Literally having to just point a laser right at something without the complication of outbound flight times or trajectories is child's play.

I'd like to see the Space Force deploy this weapons system.

I would say "Did we get them from the Bundeswehr?"... because we've had this ability since at least the 1980's.

But, I'm not because that would be an oversimplification bordering on dishonesty. Good against remotes is one thing, good against the living that's something else. "An aircraft" can mean a lot of things, and even the PRC can build things which are a PITA to shoot down.

It's very good we're staying active in the tech arms race. Our rivals (and even aliens if they have'm already) are undoubtedly developing their own implementations.

Old news, we could shot the m out of a mercury outboard on a boat going 50 mph in the gulf from a satellite in space 10 years ago.

That wasn’t really keep that quiet. God knows what weapons they as testing in the underground tunnels and bases in New Mexico and Arizona