{"id":1309,"date":"2009-10-12T00:20:43","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T07:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2009-11-21T21:17:37","modified_gmt":"2009-11-22T05:17:37","slug":"us-air-force-aircraft-fires-phasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/12\/us-air-force-aircraft-fires-phasers\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force Aircraft Fires Phasers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a scene right out of <em>Star Trek<\/em> (which is based on\u00a0the Navy construct, by the way), a C-130 equipped with a laser recently engaged a vehicle on the ground with fascinating results.\u00a0 The laser sparked and burned the hood of a parked car, and Boeing,\u00a0the commercial contractor, said that it &#8220;killed&#8221; the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The C-130 carried a belly-mounted turret from which it fired its\u00a0Airborne Tactical Laser\u00a0(ATL).\u00a0 The ATL\u00a0has been under development <!--more-->for some time, though it may have been eclipsed in the news by the Airborne Laser (ABL), which is intended to shoot down ballistic missiles.\u00a0 Both are chemical-based lasers that require huge infrastructures to operate.\u00a0 The ATL fills a C-130, and the ABL is currently housed in a 747 jumbo jet.<\/p>\n<p>Long the topic of science fiction, many have speculated about when the military would field directed energy weapons.\u00a0 (Some also question whether such technology violates the Geneva Conventions.)\u00a0 Others just wonder if they&#8217;re going to install padded swivel chairs in the center of the cockpit for the Captain.<\/p>\n<p>The US military has long maintained its dominance by remaining on the cutting edge, even if that cutting edge technology was never used.\u00a0 Deterrence, after all, is often preferable to violence, but the <em>ability <\/em>to wage\u00a0effective violence (via such modern technology) is necessary for effective deterrence.<\/p>\n<p>The F-22, F-35, ABL, ATL, UAVs, and a host of other technologies (some classified) continue the American example of how\u00a0the <em>best<\/em> materiel (even if it is expensive) enables the US to deter aggressors, influence the world, and decisively win in conflict if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Air Force Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/2009\/10\/airforce_tactical_laser_100209w\/\">reports on the ATL<\/a>, and\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boeing.com\/defense-space\/ic\/des\/videos\/index.html\">Boeing videos<\/a> can be seen on their site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a scene right out of Star Trek (which is based on\u00a0the Navy construct, by the way), a C-130 equipped with a laser recently engaged a vehicle on the ground with fascinating results.\u00a0 The laser sparked and burned the hood of a parked car, and Boeing,\u00a0the commercial contractor, said that it &#8220;killed&#8221; the vehicle. The C-130 carried a belly-mounted turret [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[13,2],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fighter-pilot","tag-aircraft","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}