Dev.SN

Commercial Jets Will Soon Be Firing Lasers

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:00AM   
from the throw-me-a-bone-here dept.

AnonTechie writes:

First Stop: Skyshield ... Next Stop: Skynet"

From an article in Wired:

Israel is finally ready to combat shoulder-launched missiles and they're going to do it with lasers. Israel's Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that SkyShield, developed by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems, had successfully completed testing and is certified for commercial use to combat the threat of man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (MANPADS) by combining advanced laser detection and disruption technologies.

• Re:Are those jets still civilian, then? Re:Are those jets still civilian, then? (Score: 4, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:19AM

  by GungnirSniper (1671) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:19AM (#11284) Journal

  Since the jets will have weapons employed (and if those weapons can be used on missiles, they certainly can be used on other targets as well), do they still qualify as civilian aircrafts?

  Good question. I've read elsewhere Israeli civilian jets use Chaff (released metal strips for radar confusion) [wikipedia.org] and similar technology for heat-seeking missiles. The offensive use of these lasers, at least attached to civilian aircraft is unlikely, as it would make all civilian aircraft suddenly into military targets. Similar to the same reason false surrenders are a bad idea.

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• Re:Are those jets still civilian, then? (Score: 5, Insightful) by Sir Garlon on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:17AM

  by Sir Garlon (1264) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:17AM (#11306)

  The offensive use of these lasers, at least attached to civilian aircraft is unlikely, as it would make all civilian aircraft suddenly into military targets.

  Anybody who is likely to attack Israel is likely to attack civilian aircraft whether they're armed or not. Indeed, that's the original reason for the lasers. Swiss Air does not need lasers on its aircraft because nobody wants to attack Swiss civilians.

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