

Military Science: Hack Stormy Skies to Lord over Lightning - joubert
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/military-science-hack-stormy-skies-to-lord-over-lightning/

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camccann
Directed electrical disharge is a popular idea that, generally, doesn't end up
working very well. Engineering geeks still love it, though, and DARPA keeps
funding attempts. Electrical arcs have an annoying habit of doing as they
please once they get outside the confines of your device, so until we hear
about something like this in actual real-world use, better to assume
vaporware.

On the other hand, _holy crap lightning is totally awesome, let's do it_. QED,
I rest my case.

~~~
robotrout
You can control it with a thin wire.
[http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rocket_li...](http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rocket_lightning_030130.html)

To weaponize it, I guess you could parachute down your wire-bearing rockets to
the target, wait for a storm, and have the rockets auto-launch when they've
detected enough atmospheric electric charge that a discharge would be likely.
Of course, in the meantime, the enemy will just go find the rocket, as it sits
for hours or days on the roof, waiting for a storm, and disable it.

Anyway, from the original article, I think what they are after is more of a
manipulation of the storm cloud itself, to get it to form where they want it
to form. Form a large, mean enough storm cloud over a city, and at the very
least, you've caused your enemy to operate at less than peak efficiency as he
deals with it, even if the actual damage is minimal. Shock and Awe.

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camccann
Stringing a conductor between the cloud and target is what I meant to exclude
by "the confines of the device". I figure that if you can successfully get
something physically attached to the target, it probably makes more sense to
skip the whole overcomplicated lightning business and just use a bomb or
something that's more reliable.

"Shock and Awe" is nice, but at some point it comes down to who's killing who
more effectively, and wasting time with sci-fi-ish boondoggles doesn't really
do much on that end.

~~~
robotrout
> it comes down to who's killing who more effectively

Actually, it doesn't. It's better to take control of a situation with minimal
casualties on either side, which is often greatly assisted these days using
communications disruption and distraction. Wholesale slaughter is generally
frowned upon, and is repulsive to everybody, especially the military. Also, it
turns out that it's not actually necessary.

