Army Demonstrates a Weapon That Shoots Laser-Guided Lightning Bolts

[Bill USA]

Jesus, I wouldn't have thought this was possible. sounds like science fiction.



http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-06/armys-laser-guided-lightning-weapon-delivers-high-voltage-through-air

Over at Picatinny Arsenal, the research and development facility and proving ground for the U.S. Army’s weaponry, engineers are developing a device that shoots lighting bolts along a laser beam to annihilate its target. That’s right: lighting bolts shot down laser beams. This story could easily end right here and still be the coolest thing we’ve written today, but for the scientifically curious we’ll continue.

The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) can be used to destroy anything that conducts electricity better than the air or ground surrounding it (unexploded ordnance seems a good candidate here). It works off of some pretty basic principles of physics, using a laser to carve an electromagnetic path through the air that accommodates a high-voltage beam. Create that path, crank up the voltage, and your target is toast.

Technology, Clay Dillow, laser weapons, lightning weapons, military, picatinny arsenal, weaponsIt works like this: a high intensity, super-short duration (maybe two-trillionths of a second) laser pulse will actually use air like lens--surrounding air focuses the beam, keeping the laser pulse nice and tight rather than scattering it. If the pulse is strong enough, it actually creates an electromagnetic field around itself that’s so powerful it strips electrons from air molecules, essentially creating a channel of plasma through the air. Since air is composed of neutral particles (that act as insulators) and the plasma channel is a good conductor (relative to the un-ionized air around it) the path of the laser beam becomes a kind of filament.

In other words, just as lightning arcs from cloud to ground via the path of least resistance, a high-voltage current will find its way down this filament rather than arcing unpredictably through the air. In other words, the laser just creates the path of least resistance between the power source and the target. Laser, lightning, destruction of target--in that order.


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[silverweb]

1. It was only a matter of time. n/t

[Scuba]

2. Looks like the target is a Ford Taurus. Zap.

[Nostradammit]

3. I wonder what Paul Wellstone would think about this weapon.

Or Mel Carnahan for that matter.

[Bill USA]

4. or Michael Connell, computer specialist for GOP

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/death_of_republican_computer_s.html

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A local TV news report fueled speculation, citing an anonymous source who said Connell had twice canceled flights in recent months after warnings that someone had tampered with his plane.

Numerous blogs have also reported that Columbus attorney Cliff Arnebeck -- who filed the lawsuit -- this summer received a tip that Connell's life was in danger and that Rove had threatened Connell and his wife, Heather. Arnebeck did not return a call Saturday.

One of Connell's attorneys did nothing to halt the rumors. He declined to comment Saturday on the TV news report or to answer questions about the litigation.
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also: 'Karl Rove's IT guru' Mike Connell dies in plane crash

[Nostradammit]

5. Ayup.

When the book is finally written on the crimes of the Bush junta it's going to be a nearly unbelievable tale of evil.

These people are truly despicable.