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Directed-energy weapons keep on truckin'

In its quest to develop laser weapons, the Pentagon is aiming both high and low.

The sky-high plans for the Airborne Laser call for a squadron of 747s that would train chemically generated laser beams on ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) to knock out those missiles long before they become a threat to targets in the United States. A "lethality" test of that system is scheduled for 2009, though if past delays are any indication of future performance...

For a more down-to-earth system, look no further than a truck-mounted solid-state laser now in the early stages of development. Rather … Read more

Military's past and future at White Sands Missile Range

TULAROSA BASIN, N.M.--I'm looking at a field full of old, mainly Cold-War-era missiles, and it's hard not to get a chill, despite the high-'90s temperature.

I'm at the White Sands Missile Range, a giant facility in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico--visiting as part of Road Trip 2007--where the U.S. military conducts some of its most secret missile experiments.

Much of it is controlled from the Cox Range Control Center, a very highly classified building that my guide wasn't able to let me see.

But she did escort me through the … Read more

Photos: Underground with Titan missiles

News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Ariz., as part of his Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest.

Located about 20 miles south of Tucson, the museum is located on a former Titan missile launching site. There, crews of four worked 24-hour shifts during which two people always had to be together to ensure safety and security. In this image, the tip of the missile--with warhead removed--is viewed from above through a glass window that allows museum visitors to peer down into the silo.

See more of his photos from the exhibition here.

Launching a Titan Missile isn't that hard

SAHUARITA, Ariz.--I've just emerged from the bottom of a Titan missile silo, and I think I now understand a little bit more about what it took to be one of the people responsible for pushing the buttons that could have started World War III.

I was at the Titan Missile Museum in this tiny desert town near Tucson, as part of Road Trip 2007, my tour around the Southwest, and it's quite the experience.

They take you deep, deep underground, into the guts of a thermonuclear weapon launching facility, and you even get to push the button. … Read more

'Missile Command' gets new look on Xbox 360

In case you missed it--or don't own an Xbox 360--Missile Command is now available for download as an Xbox Live Arcade game (the full version is $5). The game includes both the old-school and the modern, "completely restylized version featuring evolved graphics and the newly introduced Throttle Monkey mode." If that Monkey Mode isn't enough for you, there's always a little wide-screen HD and Dolby Digital surround sound to amp up the action.

Photos: The Airborne Laser goes to Washington

The bulbous nose on this modified 747 is an early sign of progress in a weapons system that one day may fulfill the goals of the Pentagon's Airborne Laser program. The aircraft recently made its first cross-country flight, landing at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland--just as Congress is debating funding for the program as part of the overall defense budget for fiscal 2008.

Find out what a "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" is when you click here for more on the Air Force and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's plans for applying the … Read more

Political battles over the Airborne Laser

Remember the scene in Independence Day where the alien invaders blow up the White House with some sort of interstellar death ray? We Earthlings are still a long, long way from that sort of weaponry--just how far will depend, as so many things do, on budget battles in Washington.

The Pentagon's premier "directed energy" weapons system is a missile-zapping laser that could someday soon be tooling around in a modified 747, if all goes right for a program valued at $3.8 billion. This week, the Airborne Laser aircraft paid a visit to Andrews Air Force Base … Read more

Hot air balloon is shaped like Darth Vader's helmet

I just came across this link to what must one of the more extreme forms of Star Wars fandom to extrude itself onto the Internet in recent memory: A hot air balloon in the shape of Darth Vader's helmet. (Via SciFi Tech and Boing Boing.)

It was created by a mad Belgian inventor named Benoit Lambert, who, according to StarWars.com, received permission from Lucasfilm to build the balloon as long as it was used for non-commercial activities. It can carry two passengers and a pilot. There's no indication of when Lambert will build a lighter-than-air Death Star. … Read more