Second live test of US raygun jumbo delayed by glitch

The United States' radical jumbo jet mounted ICBM-blasting laser cannon was set for its most ambitious test yet last night, in which it would have fried a missile in flight from more than 100 miles off. However technical hitches have delayed the test until the weekend. The trial was announced by the US defence department in a …

[Anonymous Coward]

HazMat...?

There's a part of me that is quietly relieved that this project has been put on the back burner.

Obviously all technology has to start somewhere and laser power has some fascinating potential. But what would have happened if/when this aircraft or those that may be built like it comes crashing down to earth (even if only by accident)? I'm not sure I would want to be one of the first-responders....

[Anonymous Coward]

All very interesting...

But where is the Eurofighter is Rubbish angle?

[Graham Bartlett]

The reality is...

"The reality is [the Iranian missile threat] did not come as fast as we thought it’d come"

Like at all.

[moonface]

MAD

So when the whole world eventually develops and deploys there own infallible ICBM defences. Can we all look forward to the return of conventional mass industrialised warfare!

Great for the Military-industrial complex but not so good for the potential cannon fodder amongst us. Thank gawd! I should be too old for conscription, to fight over imaginary geographical borders and plutocratic power games.

I am quite fond of Mutually Assured Destruction, as I believe it must frustrate the hell out of the hawk and plutocrat's imperial ambitions.

[Trevor_Pott]

@moonface

Conventional warfare? You mean the type now being fought by robots? I’d not worry too much about being cannon fodder. I would fret about being collateral damage however…

[MacroRodent]

MAD is mad

The problem with MAD is that we are always a few equipment or human errors away from nuclear armageddon, even after the Cold War. Near misses have already happened. There are men alive on both US and Russian sides, who can be said to have saved the planet by questioning orders or instrument readings at the last moment...

[Anonymous Coward]

Genius anyone?

I'll have to dig out this old Val Kilmer classic and watch it tonight...