Laser Attack

[Amphion]

This was just recently brought to my attention, and it kinda freaked me out. In short, I Navy Chopper had a laser shot at it by Russian Merchant ship that injured some of the crew, it was then covered up by the US Goverment untill just a while back. If you are interested, the article is below from the [i]Washington Times[/i].

[url]http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-7676092.htm[/url]

It is really suprising that the Navy does not even support him. They even asked the guy not to wear his uniform in court.

I also wish there was more info on the type of laser.

[Tigervx]

umm, if you read, it says that the laser BLINDED the US officer. Lasers do hurt your eyes you know.

[Amphion]

umm...yeah, I know. Yes they do hurt your eyes. But we are not talking a little laser pointer. The helicopter was on a photo recon flight, they were a good ways away from the ship. A pointer laser is not powerfull enough to have that kind of range.

Sorry if I made it sound like "laser" as in, DEATHRAY. Im just trying to stress the fact of our goverment covering up another incident. Then not even offering the man support in court.

[Kent]

what, lasers dont hurt your eyes. come on, dont you remember just the cheesey little laser pointer problems. good god man, keep up with tech just a little.

its also no suprise to this clinton hater that in 1997 this happened and was covered up.

score one for kent.

its also no suprise about this, if you take the time to search the net for anti personnel weapons. you will find all sorts of nonlethal blinding, deafening, immobilizing and mauling devices.

i just say this is another example of how russians are still not to be trusted. heck, just before this iraq stuff came up, the russian gov. made a 5 year ecomonic plan with saddam.

talk about silly for them and stupid for us to trust them.

[James]

[color=royalblue]Gokents, you could use the same cover up type story about Bush 41. He "covered up" incidents that occured during the Gulf War.

But anyway...yes, of course lasers can hurt you. If they are powerful enough.

A "laser pointer" is very weak. But there are much more powerful industrial lasers that can cut through metal, glass and other objects.[/color]

[Kent]

actually you are very right. cough* gulf war syndrome* cough but I just thought Id mention that here since it was direct to this thread.

if you wanna start a cover up thread or a 1988-92 president of united states thread, Id be down with the disscusion.(all of that was sarcastic, but I still fear adm. james, so please laugh and forgive, please!)

back to point.

the laser used might not have even been a laser, but possible just a really bright light.
never know with those crafty russians.
of course they spy most of that stuff off the u.s.a. any way so I dont know who to blame for the tech, but the use is on the russians in this case. no doubt about that.

[James]

[color=royalblue]I'm glad you were being sarcastic; your political bias would get an absolute mauling. ;)

Anyway, now that I've read the article...all I can say is that it's unfortunate, but not unexpected.

Government frequently screws people over to "keep the peace". I don't know if I agree with [i]every[/i] bit of intelligence being shared with the public...but in some cases there's no excuse to do otherwise.[/color]

[liamc2]

Lasers? Feh, I thought everyone knew about them, sheesh.

Quite a few of our helicopters (not to mention many other countries) (particulary the Blackhawks) to have a mounted laser designed to blind and/or impair and enemie's vision enough for the attacking helicopter to make a safe retreat. Sure it can blind and otherwise, but the standard 'helmet' of the pilot and gunner has a reflective shield on it where the helicopter data and vitals are displayed, this usually negates the effect if it isn't a direct hit..but it stumps me why they equip them if they know it probably has a 80% chance of failing...

Anyhoo, I hate to break it to you but this isn't much news for me.

Also the UN held a conference a while back about the development of lasers that were designed to impair and blind (Satellite mounted ones that could in fact blind entire nations) They were banned from use entirely because of the massive harm they could cause.

(A book that hits the idea of this technology, and genetic modification, was published at the time of the conference (I believe). Funny thing is I hated the stupid thing, but it does raise a few points. The Title of the book? The Triffids)

I am however unsure about the international treaty binding the helicopter based laser variety, but I do know that plenty of 'copters have them.

[Guest cloricus]

I am with Liam, lasers are nothing new, and they can be as powerful as you want. I believe at the moment the most powerful one on earth is in America, it is being used to simulate the big bang.
It would be very possible to create a long-range laser that could do that to a person. Any one here could build one with off the self-stuff - with the plans and stuff.

And yes our Blackhawk?s do have them; they are also used to disrupt the attackers systems.

The US army lies about allot of stuff, eg "We did not order our troops to fire on civilians." (That was Korea I believe, and guess what they said a few years ago.) "Yes we did order our troops to fire on civilians, this included children." (This was even after troops had questioned the orders at the time.)
Project Rainbow. (Philadelphia project.)
Testing chemical agents on it's own people. (Don't know if that was the army or the government. Yeah what do you feel about your selves compared to Iraq now? America is just as bad... Okay now I'm off the track.)

Yeah it would be very easy and I would think an army in defence would use this. (Of course I wouldn't want them to do that...)

-Lord Epssy

[Transtic Nerve]

I just watched a documentory on Sci Fi about Death rays and other "mysterious" stuff.... It's rather ridiculous, but still it COULD be done. Knowing half the crap the government hides, who knows what we have or what we have the potential to do.

[Foredaddy]

I know what ya mean. Ive heard through the grapevine that the moon has actually been blown up and is now just a projection like the saiyans do. No wonder the astronauts haven't been to the moon in a while. :devil:

[MathGuy2]

Sure, Foredaddy. And Enron is using the Sun for it's accounting - what we see is a giant flashlight. Foredaddy, the reason astronauts haven't been to the moon is THERE'S NOTHING THERE! No life, no atmosphere - it's totally useless except as a goal.

There is a lot of technology the government has. They're not "hiding it" - it's just it's not impressive.

"The laser used might have been.....just a really bright light." er....a laser is a powerful, straight beam of light - normal "bulb" light goes in all directions, the light from excited atoms in a laser goes in one direction.

" i just say this is another example of how russians are still not to be trusted. heck, just before this iraq stuff came up, the russian gov. made a 5 year ecomonic plan with saddam.

talk about silly for them and stupid for us to trust them."

Sillier and stupider for us to be American citizens - we put Saddam in power and gave him his initial supply of chem/bio weapons.

Government is helplessly corrupt. No, I'm not anarchist - that would be worse. It's just that there is no such thing as an perfectly moral and honest organization.

[Amphion]

Okay sorry! You all dont have to jump me, Im not sure about were you guys live but where I live, you dont hear much about people being attacked by lasers.

And I am not a clinton hater. This was covered up by both administrations.

[liamc2]

That reminds me, there is a very, very large laser that has been developed with the simple yet explanatory name of 'Chemical Laser.'

Basically it's not far off from 'Star Wars' type effects when it's fired, all it's lacking is mobility and er, smallness.

I'll try and find images and mpegs of what it did to several buildings during it's testing stages...just a mental picture though, building one second, the next, huge burning fire ball explosion...

[Reflection]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MathGuy2 [/i]
Government is helplessly corrupt.[/B][/QUOTE]

Amen.

[zidane11]

I have also heard that there has never been a single case of permanent loss of eyes from a laser before. They have caused temporary blindness though. I find that article quite interesting.