Remember MoJo JoJo always plotting to build a huge laser to take over the planet? While it was just a fantasy in a silly little cartoon a few years back, it is now a reality as the US Army will have its hands on a massive killer laser beams courtesy Lockheed Martin.
The weapons manufacturer has revealed that the advent of a new laser weapon that can shoot a laser at 58 kilowatts of power! To give you a sense of the power, Boeing blew a mortar out of the sky in 2014 using its HEL MD which was rated at “just” 10 kilowatts.
Lockheed claims that they will be able to hit 60 kilowatts by the time it ships, as they combine multiple individual fiber lasers focused into a single beam. The hardware itself is a huge one, that needs an armored truck to be transported. Similar lasers have been deployed by the US Navy in the Persian Gulf that had half the power and twice the weight. But Lockheed’s design is both lighter and more destructive, making it a remarkable weapon.
Dwelling on the power of the laser, Loren Thompson, CEO of the nonprofit Lexington Institute said,
“the laser hit targets at the speed of light, they cost almost nothing per shot, and they have an almost unlimited number of times they can be used. A medium-sized laser should be able to take out any number of drones in a very short period of time because they are so fragile.”
The device isn’t viable for attacking individual targets, but rather to shoot down small aircraft, drones, and rockets and not resort to blasting a $3 million missile to bring down a $200 drone as we saw with the US army just a week back. With the technology becoming more affordable and commonplace, the laser will be used on targets such as ISIS drones and remote-controlled machine guns for little cost and effort.
Lockheed’s invisible laser technology is good enough to kill people and blast off things at the speed of light, and this is surely a step towards making modern warfare cheaper and deadlier, so a sweet and sour situation for the world.
Wow cost??