Here is a fascinating teaser for a Janes subscription only article:
US military pinpoints date for HELLADS ground test. The United States military told Jane’s it is on schedule for a 2010 ground test of a lightweight high-energy laser that could be installed on a tactical aircraft to destroy missiles, rockets and mortars. The laser, known as the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), is being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and General Atomics, along with several other contractors.
It is all coming together about as I expected, although perhaps a little faster than I really believed.
The -A (and I think -C) model JSFs have two interesting features. Because they lack the -Bs lift fan they’ve got a nice lickle space to put stuff and secondly they’ve got a lot of electrical generating capacity.
I predict interesting applications.
They’re going to put a laser that powerful in tactical aircraft? Does that really mean strike fighters like F-35, or are they considering military variants of commercial jets to be “tactical”?
It doesn’t matter Eric. As long as they can stop a resurgent TOTALITARIAN COLLECTIVISM anything goes. At the moment looks like even a LASER won’t be able to achieve that…
So when can we expect star destroyers?