Yo Joe! U.S. Navy Equipping with Lasers in the Persian Gulf
 |
We’ve known these were in development for a while, but the testing phase is over. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced the first field deployment of a directed energy weapon on ships in the Middle East. The laser beams are the only weapon as fast as the speed of light, they stay steady even in rough seas and can take out drones and speedboats (but not, as yet, jet fighters or missiles). On the plus side, they also can’t be deflected by a ninja swinging his sword super-fast. So there’s that.
Perhaps the only disappointment for Joe fans is that the whole “blue laser versus red laser” issue is dodged – this laser’s beam is invisible to the naked eye.
Video of it in action, with commentary, after the jump…
About The Author
Luke Y. Thompson has been writing professionally about movies and pop-culture since 1999, and has also been an actor in some extremely cheap culty and horror movies you will probably never hear much about (he is nonetheless mostly proud of them, as he met his wife on one). As editor of The Robot's Voice since 2012, he can take the blame for the majority of the site's content, all of which he creates because he loves you very, very much. (Although he loves nachos more. Sorry.) Prior to TRV, Luke wrote for publications that include the New Times LA, Los Angeles CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Geekweek, GeekChicDaily, The L.A. Times, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Nerdist