Too bad R Lee Ermey isn't still around to react to
Post# of 123718
'What did I tell you warfighters about eating Cheetos in my war room? That's right, you can't f'ing have them you disgusting fat bodies! Now police the orange off your fingers and from your silly mouths. DO IT!'
While hailed as game-changing technology, THOR has been foiled by at least one enemy so far: Cheeto dust.
“We thought, ‘Well, we should have everything touchscreen-operated,’ ” Shiffler said. “Except you find out that that doesn’t work for warfighters who are pulling a long shift, because they do things like eat Cheetos while they’re sitting there working. And then the touchscreen does not work.”
Some Directed-Energy Weapons Show Promise While Others Slow
July 7, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen
Air Force officials are still looking to perfect directed-energy weapons to use against the low-tech threat of small drones before scaling up lasers and microwaves to take out cruise missiles.
https://www.airforcemag.com/some-directed-ene...hers-slow/
The Air Force’s high-power microwave weapon known as the Tactical High-Power Microwave Operational Responder, or THOR, is heading to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for a last system check before it ships overseas for real-life testing, the Air Force said July 8.
THOR is designed to simultaneously take down several small drones within short range by frying their electronics with a wide electromagnetic beam. Built by the Air Force, BAE Systems, Leidos, and New Mexico-based Verus Research, THOR has a video game-like interface, can be carried in a C-130 and quickly assembled on land, and can tap into other detection and targeting systems or use its own to attack small unmanned aircraft.
The microwave weapon is one option to protect military bases from commercially sold drones that can spy on or attack American installations overseas. An aircraft like that costs only $1,000 but can put an entire squadron of F-22 jets at risk, Don Shiffler, chief scientist in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s directed energy branch, said July 7 during an online event hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Air Force previously said THOR would be one of five different technologies that would participate in a long-term overseas test starting this year.
While hailed as game-changing technology, THOR has been foiled by at least one enemy so far: Cheeto dust.
“We thought, ‘Well, we should have everything touchscreen-operated,’ ” Shiffler said. “Except you find out that that doesn’t work for warfighters who are pulling a long shift, because they do things like eat Cheetos while they’re sitting there working. And then the touchscreen does not work.”