Israeli citizens sue government for lack of ray-gun defense
Noah Shachtman at Wired's Danger Room blog reports that residents of a southern Israeli town are demanding a "laser cannon" to protect them against Palestinian rocket attacks. They are suing the government of Israel for failing to provide the ray gun defense. Snip:
Northrop [Grumman] is pushing an upgraded [Tactical High Energy Laser], under the name SkyGuard, which it says can fit into just three cargo containers. Newspapers have been howling for the government to put the laser defenses in place; the volume has only gone up since Hezbollah launched a series of rocket attacks against northern Israel in 2006, and since Hamas started firing longer-range rockets at southern Israel earlier this year. But the Israeli military has said that the sci-fi-esque system is still not ready for a real-world deployment.Link to full post.
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...and where the fuck is my flying car?!?!?!?! I'll sue!!!
I always maintained I would join the army if they let me pilot a mega mecha droid. I mean, at that point it would be game over for the world anyway, and if I go out, I want to go out in a mega mecha droid.
So the US has been supplying them with the very latest in modern weapons to assault their neighbours, and their citizens are complaining because they don't have lasers?
Anybody else find this hilarious?
They want this device to defend themselves, not assault their neighbors. So what's to complain about?
"Anybody else find this hilarious?"
If this was an article in 'The Onion' I would agree that this is indeed quite hilarious...but considering that it's true, it's brutally tragic.
#4 "They want this device to defend themselves, not assault their neighbors. So what's to complain about?"
If they get weapons to make rockets harmless, what will the IDF use as an excuse to launch punitive attacks?
just a question,
if the laser is able to heat up the rockets and make them explode, couldn't they just start painting their rockets white?
wouldn't that reflect the laser instead of absorbing the heat?
science?
Yeah well, defense can easily be turned to offense. German 88s were flak cannons designed to destroy bombing airplanes. Some genius on the frontline realized it was just as lethal if turned horizontally to fire at ground forces. After firing, the shell was designed to burst after a certain number of rotations and on the ground would release a lethal cloud of shrapnel even on entrenched positions.
Rommel used it to great advantage in Africa when he was deprived of materiel by the high command.
Best chance for israeli towns would be to buy some CIWS units or patriot missiles. Or buy some MLRS systems of their own.
I guess they could use the laser to annoy Mahmoud Ahmeohnoyoudinnenjad from miles away afterwords.
"I can see the light! AND IT BURNS!"
These guys need to stop watching Attack of the Clones. "I didn't know epcot could do that!"
they ain't getting the system. Public deployment will reveal a lot of taxes were spent making some people rich and delivering a non-working system
They'll withdraw the lawsuit after the first hundred or so people are blinded by watching the laser beam "paint" a missile or other target.
They evidently haven't caught on that it is a bullshit weapons system designed for moving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into defense industry bank accounts. It is a vastly impractical weapon system. I don't expect it to be deployed very often, save in very isolated and unpopulated locations.
The problem between Israelis and Palestinians is that both sides have poisoned their minds, and each new generation is also immediately poisoned. Solve that and you solve the underlying problems. A comic book laser beam is of no use.
This is a minor quibble, but the headline was slightly confusing. "Ray-gun defense" could mean defense that consists of ray-guns or defense against attacks by ray-guns. That would just be silly.
Or, of course, a legal defense: I was in mortal fear of being killed by a ray gun.
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Jnk ml.
Crclr fl.
I hate to go knee-jerk, but, um, could someone remove #13 for gross antisemitism? It's kind of making me pukey, seeing it on the boingboing. The repsonse also annoys me with its incoherence, but the antisemitism really does bug me.
And, should anyone think I'm some kind of rabid ADLer, ¡Viva Palestine!
Maybe they need a wing of TIE fighters as well?
I'm with #14 on this.
Post #13 is very offensive.
Viva Palestine; Viva Israel; hope it works out in my lifetime.
The Line is NikFromNYC's natural habitat. Sometimes he goes over it.
Nik, tone it down.
Maybe they could get sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.
Laser is the name of a character in Fiddler on the Roof. Isn't it ironic?
Just off the top of my head, 2 ways that may get round this system:
1- Attack the laser unit itself before launching your salvo. That mirror lens housing looks pretty delicate.
2 - Create rounds/rockets that are intended to be blown up prior to reaching the 'target'. Containing say Radioactive crap or some sort of Biological or chemical weapon. Just launch them when the wind is blowing in the right direction.
I was thinking more of staged attacks with missiles fuzed to blow halfway and fool everyone into thinking it works. You know,like that Patriot missile test that had a homing beacon inside the target missile.
#7 ZMAN: I believe the answer to your question turns on the spectrum of electromagnetic energy the system uses. I watched the video and it explains that it uses Infrared energy. White paint would only reflect light in Visible electromagntic spectrum. There may be counter measures to the infrared but I'm not an expert in the field so couldn't say.
It doesn't matter if the laser system works, it only matters that the people launching the rockets think it works and are deterred from launching rockets by it.
no,they'll keep launching because they see their rockets work.