"Eric Chomko" wrote in message
...
On Feb 17, 12:01 pm, Brad Guth wrote:

..

With so much of our national resources going into advanced weapons,
perhaps the good side of all this will eventually create a thousand
fold more powerful laser cannon that can defend Earth from those NEOs
and rogue arrivals that pose a significant threat.


Yeah, add in a bunch of roughneck oil drillers posing as astronauts
and you might have something.

Wait, the movie "Armageddon" already did that...


Have you ever spent any time brousing the various US military websites?
I mean, it's not like they're keeping our military ambitions in space secret.
In fact, it seems they go out of the way to brag about it.

From one of my favorite sites, the Directed Energy Directorate (great name)

And btw some of the key words below are....

"freedom to maneuver in space"
"high-energy lasers"
"long-range strike"
"space deployable laser"
"basketball-sized objects"
"thousand miles into space"

Not even reading between the lines this translates to....

'The US intends to be able to vaporize anything that get's in our way
using high-powered lasers based on the ground and in space.'


Directed Energy Directorate

"Freedom to maneuver in space is critical to meeting the United States Air
Force's mission to fly, fight, and win in air, space and cyberspace."

"The Directorate concentrates on improving warfighter capabilities
such as precision engagement, long-range strike, counter electronics,
force protection, and space situational awareness. Directorate researchers
develop, integrate,and transition technology that includes high-energy lasers,
high-power microwaves, millimeter waves, beam control, and advanced
optical systems."
http://www.kirtland.af.mil/afrl_de/

LARGE MEMBRANE MIRRORS

'This program will demonstrate the performance of a revolutionary
approach to a large aperture, high resolution, space deployable
laser projection system that will reduce optics payload weight
by at least 50% and launch costs proportionately. It will
demonstrate space optics and projection technologies required
for very large aperture, longdwell systems used for situational awareness."
http://www.kirtland.af.mil/shared/me...070404-038.pdf


STARFIRE OPTICAL RANGE AT KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE

"The SOR operates one of the world's premier adaptive-optics telescopes
capable of tracking low-earth orbiting satellites. The telescope has a
3.5-meter (11.5 feet) diameter primary mirror.." "Using adaptive optics,
the telescope distinguishes basketball-sized objects at a distance of
1,000 miles into space. It is a major component of the Air Force Research
Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate.
http://www.kirtland.af.mil/library/f...t.asp?id=15868




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