Laser Hummer in Iraq!

This thing was detroying ordninace, but its part of an offensive program being tested in Iraq. Mmmm...

www.defensetech.org...

"In 2003, the Army sent ZEUS, a Humvee armed with a 10kw solid-state laser, to Afghanistan, to blast mines and other explosives left over from years of war. In the six months ZEUS spent there, the laser-hummer zapped over 200 pieces of unexploded ordnance, according to the Army, "at one point setting a record for ordnance disposal by negating 51 pieces in less than 100 minutes."

Now, ZEUS "is being forward deployed" again, Army Space and Missile Defense Command Lt. Gen. Larry Dodgen tells Defense Daily..."

Man I'd like to get one of those for rush hour traffic.
Sweeeeeeeeet!

That is a wicked looking Hummer.

i guess they finally hired the guys that made C&C:generals for weapons research

I would like to point out a mistake on my part.

About a year ago I read Directed Energy Weapons, An ATS Analysis & Discussion written by Intelgurl.
At the time I doubted that anyone on ATS would really have inside knowledge of weapons like lasers and stuff. I read her post not wanting to believe her and one of the things I figured was BS was what she said about the ZEUS laser already being in the field and operational in Iraq and Afganistan. I searched all over the web trying to find anything out about the ZEUS and nothing I found at that time said that it was operational.
Now, a year later I read this article skippy linked to and it says the ZEUS was operational as far back as 2003 in Iraq and Afganistan.

I want to apologize to Intelgurl for my skepticism both here and by U2U.
She really did know what she was talking about.

I wrote to the president of the company that developed Zeus, about a year ago. I asked him if the military ever purchased the system. He told me no, and that the military had lost interest in it. Then when I asked him how much it cost (I was just curious), he responded back as if I were a terrorist or something.

Originally posted by NWguy83
I wrote to the president of the company that developed Zeus, about a year ago. I asked him if the military ever purchased the system. He told me no, and that the military had lost interest in it. Then when I asked him how much it cost (I was just curious), he responded back as if I were a terrorist or something.

Your phone lines are probably all tapped.

Your Internet connection is probably being observed as we speak.

I can help you!

What you must do now is re $IHT WHWO$;h iHII ;oi

The Zeus Hlons is a biproduct of the solid state combat lasers being developed by TRW and Raytheon. As I understand it this was a needed system but from a business sense is a way of achieving profitability for the research being conducted for the ATL solid state 100kw combat laser.

On a side note to Nanobyte's post, I know Natalie (Intelgurl) in person and I think I can say the following without pissing her off:

* If she is guessing in a post she will say she is guessing
* If she says something as fact then you can bank on it

and

* She is always vague about her job at Raytheon
* She travels all the time

Actually, I e-mailed him if that makes any difference.