Blake Hall
No, a giant cigarette didn’t do this.
A laser did.
During a recent field test, Lockheed Martin’s new 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon tore through a small truck from a mile and change away. The result is the photograph above.
Aside from the Hollywood-style mechanical carnage the visual offers, the beam was strategically effective as well: it completely disabled the engine of the pickup.
According to the defense contractor, the demonstration is a sign of the times, signaling the “rapidly evolving precision capability to protect military forces and critical infrastructure”. In this instance, they used Advanced Test High Energy Asset, a prototype they affectionately call “ATHENA”.
Just how powerful is this laser? Well, to put it into context, the laser in an everyday laser pointer might be one milliwatt, if that. ATHENA is made up of multiple fiber lasers combined into one beam for 30 kilowatts. That’s 3 million times more powerful than the pointer.
Lockheed calls it “a near-perfect quality beam of light”.
So long as you avoid its path.