America Under Siege: The End of Innocence Message Board

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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence

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To: Investor Clouseau who wrote (19692)	11/7/2002 10:25:29 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (2) of 27668

"From that which is evil (WAR) something good always comes!" IMHO, new weapons usually lead to useful spin-offs in peacetime. Artillery shell no match for powerful laser Defensive capabilities open up with new laser WASHINGTON - The United States Army used a high-energy laser to shoot down an artillery shell in mid-flight in a defence industry breakthrough, the army and the manufacturer said. The army and TRW Inc, which developed the weapon, said in a joint statement that the laser tracked, locked onto and fired a burst of concentrated light-energy photons at the speeding shell over the White Sands test range in New Mexico on Tuesday. 'Seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed,' said the army's Space and Missile Defence Command. The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is being developed by TRW for both the US army and the Israeli Defence Ministry. Lasers have been used in past tests at the range to shoot down slower Katyusha rockets similar to those fired at Israel by militant guerilla groups in Lebanon. 'This latest test shifts the paradigm for defensive capabilities,' said army Lieutenant-General Joseph Cosumano, head of the Missile Defence Command. 'We've shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through the air at supersonic speed is no match for a laser.' The laser was fired from a static test-bed in a carefully-controlled test, but TRW officials said that they looked forward to producing a truly- mobile version as the programme progressed. Tuesday's test - the first time a laser had shot down an artillery shell - was part of a new series to determine MTHEL requirements and demonstrate the system's capabilities against a wide range of airborne targets. In earlier tests in 2000 and last year, the test-bed focused on the threat of artillery rockets and shot down 25 Katyushas fired singly and in salvos. The US military has shot down dummy in- tercontinental missile warheads in tests both inside and outside the atmosphere using projectile weapons, and is also examining the possible use of long-range lasers to burn up such warheads in flight. --Reuters

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