Laser

AIR FORCE WANTS LASER WEAPON ON GUNSHIPS

It  isn’t quite the Death Star, but in the near future, we’re likely to see super-powered lasers above the skies behind enemy lines, raining laser ammunition onto the battlefield.

Speaking at the Air and Space Conference in Washington, D.C. last week, the general in charge of the nation’s 19,000 air commandos says that, just as President John F. Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, he wants lasers on gunships by the end of the decade.

The comments by Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold are the latest in his pursuit of a laser-weaponized gunship. The command, based out of Hurlburt Field in Mary Esther, is already developing what are referred to as “tactics, techniques and procedures” — essentially an operations manual — for how to employ the airborne lasers in combat. The general also says he would like to pursue “less than lethal” weapons to deploy in combat.