General Atomics and Boeing will build a giant laser for the US military

General Atomics and Boeing will build a giant laser for the US military

Post Views: 239 The contract is to deliver a powerful, compact prototype of this laser weapon. General Atomics will build the laser, and defense giant Boeing will incorporate targeting and tracking tools and software, which allow the laser to find and hold focus on a moving target. This is crucial to preventing the laser from…

NASA is testing space lasers to shoot data back to Earth

NASA is testing space lasers to shoot data back to Earth

Post Views: 194 Glenn Jackson, LCRD payload project manager, says the demo could someday help wrap internet networks around the moon and even Mars. “Currently we use radio frequency to move data and video to Earth,” Jackson says. “Laser communication increases that bandwidth and allows us to get more data to Earth from astronauts and…

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

Post Views: 274 To better understand modern directed-energy weapons, it’s important to take a step back from the science-fiction idea of a laser weapon. High-powered beams of light are expensive to develop and deploy, but they offer a kind of cost-savings once they are up and running. Provided a ship can generate the electrical power…