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Want a Government-Issue Laser Gun? Want to Make Moonshine?
While lasers are here to stay on the battlefield, they are rare. Physics being physics, we simply have not yet developed a very efficient system, so power remains the main problem. the THEL (Tactical High Energy Laser) has been fully developed for shooting down incoming projectiles and aircraft. It is mounted on a railroad car, however, so it remains in limbo for a production go-ahead. ABL (Airborne Laser) has also been fully developed and is ready for production. ABL mounts in the nose of a 747 aircraft. It is part of the suite of systems designed for national missile defense, however, so has been placed on hold by the current administration along with the rest of all missile defenses. Tactical systems heve been developed but not fielded. These include STINGRAY, a man-portable device which scans an area with a Class III (eye safe) laser looking for reflections from eyeballs, much like the reflection of a deer's eyes in headlights. Once a reflection is detected, the operator can narrow the scanning beam to become a Class I (not eye safe)laser, burning the interior of the enemy's eye, blinding him or her. A vehicular version , called CCLAW (Close Combat Laser Assault Weapon) is also available. It operates much like Stingray, although it is higher powered and can burn eyeballs through "direct view" optica and, it is reported, can actually score the lens of an electro-optic visual system. The Army's AMCOM (Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, AL has also developed a similar laser system capable of scoring the glass on the warheads of passive heat seeking missiles like Sa-7, SA-21, STINGER, etc. This obviously breaks lock-on and causes the missile to mission abort.— April 6, 2011 4:37 p.m.