The ray gun, or directed energy weapon as they like to call it these days, continues its remarkable ex-migration from the pages of science fiction…we mentioned the Airborne Laser (ABL) a while ago – it’s designed to shoot down ballistic missles during the launch phase. Boeing’s new Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) achieved first light this month – the ATL is intended for use by aircraft against ground targets.
And looking ahead to about 2025, the aptly-named FotoFighter should make its appearance. According to the military, the FotoFighter will have “embedded arrays of semi-conductor lasers as sensors and weapons” for both defensive & offensive purposes. It will also likely be pilotless and/or autonomous, have invisibility, and be able to fry the countryside with megajoule bursts of energy, but only, one supposes, after ‘de-cloaking’.
And looking still further afield, we should see the start of efforts to weaponize quantum mechanics. Some future defense appropriations bill may well include line items associated with development of a retrocausality weapon, timeline modification via the entanglement of time, extra-dimensional warfare, or delivery systems based on quantum teleportation, or the expedient of simply re-programming reality, assuming the universe is indeed a quantum computer. We’ve no idea what we’re talking about here…speculative pseudo science at best.
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December 5th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
oh my it is amazing it is unbeliveable no way shutup shutup
I scream you scream we all scream for icecream
December 20th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
scream for icecream? we scream for fotofighter to come true..
October 6th, 2007 at 8:16 am
I thought it was the Aurora… ??
October 8th, 2007 at 11:12 am
You’re right, the depicted image is indeed an Aurora – a mouseover reveals the text: “…actually its just an Aurora with a bluish aura, but it looks good”.
My excuse – a generalized failure of the imagination re futuristic aircraft.