…but, let’s face it: I’m almost certainly thinking that right now. I mean: laser cannon. This is why we all signed up for the Twenty-First Century, right?
Boeing is building a laser cannon for the U.S. Army, and the new weapon has now proved it will be as capable at sea as on land. The High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD)—basically a high-energy laser mounted on top of a big truck—was successfully used to blast some UAV drones and 60mm mortars out of the Florida sky earlier this year, Boeing announced Thursday.
I will pass over lightly the minor detail that what’s being actually reported may not really live up to the promise implied in the above paragraph, and instead note, again: laser cannon. If we’re not getting it today, it’s going to be soon. The future does seem determined to arrive, whether we particularly want it to, or not. Although if it’s bringing a laser cannon with it then it could have arrived last week and I wouldn’t have minded…