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Like something out of G.I. Joe, or even Star Wars, the U.S. Air Force is working with aerospace defense firm Lockheed Martin to deploy lasers on fighter jets by 2025.
The program even has a super comic book-y title -- going by "SHiELD" (yes, with a lower-case 'I'), aka "Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator."
It's very reminiscent of Hydra turncoat Grant Ward's quote on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD when he said "It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out S.H.I.E.L.D."
National Defense explains that SHiELD is a pod-mounted laser on the fuselage or wing of a fighter jet designed to shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.
It's being said that the SHiEILD system might be initially used "to protect older fighters that can’t take advantage of stealth to hide from the enemy." And, just like the dogfights we've seen between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, lasers have an almost infinite ammunition supply. Traveling at the speed of light, impossible to dodge, a laser can be powered by the airplane’s engine, removing the need for an onboard gun magazine.
Popular Mechanics even states that "SHiELD, paired with existing chaff and flare defenses, could very well someday be controlled by an R2D2-type artificial intelligence tasked with defending their warplanes from missile attack."
So there you go. How long before we get little robots, in a separate hatch, controlling the laser beam deployment?
The program even has a super comic book-y title -- going by "SHiELD" (yes, with a lower-case 'I'), aka "Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator."
It's very reminiscent of Hydra turncoat Grant Ward's quote on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD when he said "It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out S.H.I.E.L.D."
National Defense explains that SHiELD is a pod-mounted laser on the fuselage or wing of a fighter jet designed to shoot down incoming air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.
It's being said that the SHiEILD system might be initially used "to protect older fighters that can’t take advantage of stealth to hide from the enemy." And, just like the dogfights we've seen between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, lasers have an almost infinite ammunition supply. Traveling at the speed of light, impossible to dodge, a laser can be powered by the airplane’s engine, removing the need for an onboard gun magazine.
Popular Mechanics even states that "SHiELD, paired with existing chaff and flare defenses, could very well someday be controlled by an R2D2-type artificial intelligence tasked with defending their warplanes from missile attack."
So there you go. How long before we get little robots, in a separate hatch, controlling the laser beam deployment?
