And in related news a flock of smoking geese were seen plummetting from the sky in New Mexico. Sources on the ground said that the remains of the geese appear to have been bqq'd to a crisp by some sort of heat ray. US military sources declined to comment.

Director of Rayguns - now that has to be a job title worth dying for!!

Though, given the laser coming from the vehicle, surely it won't be long before someone reverse engineers a way for "enemy" laser-guided missiles to target onto it and so destroy said humvee without much effort???

It's just the Americans (and their feeble-minded friends) who have UAVs armed with bombs. Real terrorists use women and children. Can this zap those targets ?

Nah, just tune it to the UV or IR ends of the spectrum, then it'll only show up on special goggles. Even better, use microwaves &, as well as zapping UAVs, you can boil enemy combatants in their own skin.

Since this will only be effective if America has a war against itself, as they are the only army likely to use unmanned air craft.

Someone's been watching too many movies.

Everyone knows you have to put on a pair of red glasses before you can see the laser beams.

Or peer through a convenient glass of red wine, of course.

Sorry, what's wrong with Army? Technically correct, still deemed acceptable by the PC-numpties (for now) and a shorter word than warfighters and without the need for an caveat/explanation.

Bargain!

I really hope that's his official title.

I think you're on to something there... If the warfighters run out of MREs, they can just point the laser at a flock of geese and Voila! Perfectly cooked goose dinners, raining from the skies!

Very good Boeing. Go to the top of the class.

Can you tell me what other countries have UAVs which you will use this laser to shoot down?

See; a fundamental flaw in your research. I could have saved you $157 million.

As Iraqy Insurgents, The Taleban and Hamas are the only ones under threat from UAVs at the moment.

Mines the one with WTF written on the back.

The Sharks with frikkin' laser cannons....

Silent? I thought lasers went PEWPEWPEW!?

Please desist with this inaccurate terminology.

Everyone knows that the proper name is deathrays.

Well if they've ended up with egg on their faces and blacked up with marmite, someone who hasn't had breakfast might end up a bit confused...

Mmmm, soldiers...

I think you are missing the point. This is tacit admission that the US really, REALLY doesn't want to have armed, autonomous weapons flying over their heads unless they have a way of 're programming' them when necessary.

Might need to coin a new phrase: "silver on blue" and/or "Blue on Silver" to describe such actions.

Why wasn't this filed under ROTM?

Probably! Bush is at this very moment planning to move troops loyal to his cause on the Whitehouse in 'Operation Blanch'.

Oh hang on, someone's knocking at my door. And there are helicopters over my house - I knew my neighbours were up to something. Aaah.

The biggest threat of mass casualties in Afghanistan seems to be RPGs...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JIyxOzbCfiU

A Chinook full of soldiers will keep flying after a lucky hit from a rifle bullet. An RPG? Not so much.

Boeing are going to attach it to this:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/7/5862480_a519f1d063.jpg

what the american public used in the late sixties / early seventies? You know the "Pysco Baby Killers" that one.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go down in flames for this one. :)

> Director of Rayguns - now that has to be a job title worth dying for!!

Damright!

> Though, given the laser coming from the vehicle, surely it won't be long before someone reverse

> engineers a way for "enemy" laser-guided missiles to target onto it and so destroy said humvee

> without much effort???

Indeed; a self-painting target. Which movie was it with the yellow humvee painted to act as ground zero for the laser-guided bomb? Patriot Games?

Erm, nope - that's a pretty accurate description of American soldiers' behaviour in Vietnam so you'll get no disagreement from me.

Mines the one with the floorplan for the HCMC War Remnants Museum (aka Museum of American War Crimes) in the pocket

"Personnel" used to be a serviceable word:

"The body of people employed in an organization, or engaged in a service or undertaking, esp. of a military nature"

As did "Warrior":

"One whose occupation is warfare; a fighting man, whether soldier, sailor, or (latterly) airman".

I suppose the British Army killed off the latter term when it built a tank of the same name.

Clear and Present Danger

~Surely your average self respecting UAV pilot would pimp his UAV and make it chrome or mirror finish. blue on multiple reflected laser blue. or even a clusterfuck, now there's a word for the description is it politically correct? who cares.

If you were to create a squad/man portable unit, I'm sure that you could design it to take out a human target with less chance of collateral damage.

Since the laser will travel at a line of site, you don't have to worry too much about wind and bullet drop, or shooting at an extreme angle. Just sight your scope in and it will be 'true' at any range.

At least in theory. You still have to worry about dust and debris obscuring your vision and also having an effect on the laser.

The point is that you can take out a target, even with a human shield. What you have to be careful is that they're not wearing a bomb and a dead man switch which will explode when he dies.

(Good stuff for a sci-fi adventure flick... no?)

What if the soldier lost his/her upper extremities due to an IED or landmine. Would he/she then be referred to as a member of the Leggy?

"Come back here! I'll bite yer knees off!"

Can one legitimately say: 'kick... arse', without appearing to be one? Especially in an explicitly American context surely the only credible possibility is, 'kick... ass'!

Mines the one... oh, I've forgotten what. Sorry.

You will be able to identify terrorists. They will be the guys carrying big mirrors.

Boeing sell laser avenger to shoot down UAVs, while selling UAVs as well. Who gets the commission?

OK, I'm no laser physicist but can't you just coat the UAV in some sort of chrome or mirror finish? Won't that effectively make the laser ineffective?

Also, assuming the mirror coat doesn't work, once this tech gets out and others build it can't the 'enemy' use it to shoot down all the 'friendly' UAVs?

I immediately thought of "warriors". English word, innit?

Maybe it sounds too much like something out a comics or fantasy book, though.

"While the feat of downing a UAV is impressive, it was only a standard UAV. Wouldn't it be more useful to have thought one step ahead and tested it against targets with laser armour?

The moment such a weapon is put into service there will be laser counter-measures available to the arms market.

Where does that leave the situation?"

A very profitable (for some) arms race? (hence the flames).

Nice article with extremely retarded conclusion.

1. There is no better way to fry a suspected roadside bomb than a laser. Nice, clean, can be done from safe standoff distance. Same for mines.

2. The thing Boeing and Co keep being very mum about is the use of lasers as anti-infantry weapon. Frying visual nerves and making one blind forever needs less that 0.1% of the energy required to fry a bomb. It can also be targeted in near-realtime on weapon flashes using a fairly primitive gunnery system hooked up to a camera. One armoured vehicle with this, suitable software operating off visual feed and you suddenly have every single one of the enemy "combatants" ready for lifetime disability allowance.