As if they weren’t pretentious enough, the British “Royal” Navy (because heaven forbid they call it the “British Navy”) came out of their cute little red phone booth (because they still use phone booths — probably) and announced that think they could improve on a weapon originally developed by the United States Navy and build a successful ship-mounted “death ray” laser cannon by the year 2020.

This from the tea-stained mouth of Great Britain’s “first sea lord” (they actually call him this) Admiral Sir George Zambellas, who declared the ambitious goal Tuesday at the world’s biggest arms fairs: the ExCel in London.

He said they’re looking to build something that’s “less cumbersome, more efficient, requiring less manpower and much more destructive” than its U.S. counterpart, which is already being tested to take out drones and ships.

Here it is, being tested on one of its ships in the Gulf last year:

Before their ship-mounted is a reality five years from now, Britain’s Ministry of Defense wants to have a land version by 2017.

Zambellas believes it could change nearly everything about modern warfare, getting on his soapbox during the convention to the scare the living piss each and every peace protestors steadfastly pacing back and forth in front of the door outside, waving their demonstrative signage and wagging their delicate fingers.

“Energy weapons don’t require conventional ammunitions. With a cost-per-shot potentially measured in pence rather than pounds, they offer a route to address the spiraling costs of missile development and production, as well as reducing supply chain demands,” he said.

The Guardian