U.S. Air Force x Gunships with Lasers

As shown above in the picture that I edited (poorly) in Paintbrush, the U.S. Air Force and Boeing have equipped a C-130 plane with an Advanced Tactical Laser for initial air-to-air tests. In September, it finally blasted something: A truck. Which is pretty sweet although there were no Michael Bay explosions or showers of twisted metal. Booo.

The parked truck's hood and engine gets burned through like butter, and as you can see in the video, the accuracy is pretty amazing. The laser can produce between 100-300 kW of power, and the next step is to trial it on moving targets. Even though the Air Force has scaled back the ambitious program's funding, perhaps we may still see the laser make it to battlefields. Maybe on the next gen of Predator drones that will spy over Afghanistan in 2011?

Predator with lasers? Oh man. The U.S. Air Force fucking rules. Reason 590344 why the United States is the best country in the world.

[Link: PopularScience]