
Laser Weapon to Go in Fighter Jet in 2021 - jonbaer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/aviation/laser-weapon-to-go-in-fighter-jet-in-2021
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wmeredith
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies,
in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who
are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the
hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern
brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each
serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with
a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes
that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life
at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity
hanging from a cross of iron."

-Dwight Eisenhower; April 16th, 1953

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Analemma_
> The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has issued a $26.3-million contract
> to Lockheed Martin to design, develop, and build a high-energy laser for
> tests in a tactical fighter jet by 2021.

So, if the recent history of Air Force procurement is anything to go by, we
can infer that this laser will actually be ready for testing by 2029, the
contact will actually cost $12 billion, and it will be an unreliable piece of
junk when it does arrive. And that's just the prototype.

~~~
King-Aaron
I don't disagree with the assessment you make, but still... It all sounds
pretty cool.

