Raytheon, a major American defense corporation, just unveiled its anti-aircraft laser at the Farnborough Airshow. The CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) is a solid state fibre laser that produces a 50 kilowatt beam strong enough to shoot down UAVs, missiles and rockets. In May, this laser was used against unmanned drones is a series of successful tests. Future developments are aimed to improve the destructive power of this new technology in order to make it effective against combat airplanes and surface ships.

The idea of using lasers as weapons has been around for many years, even before the first Star Wars movie came out. Theories about its military use were discussed right after the laser was invented in 1960. Chemical lasers are already available but they are very large pieces of equipment that are not usable anywhere. In addition to this, they are very fuel hungry and they require a significant quantity of chemicals to drive them. This kind of fuel is toxic and their operators need to wear protective clothing if they plan to live long.

But CIWS is not chemical, it’s a solid state laser that uses a glass or ceramic material to generate the light beam and it only requires a simple energy input. This difference permits Raytheon to minaturise the laser technology and make it suitable for military use. Navy ships will be the first to install CIWS as an anti-aircraft defense system but once the technology progresses combat aircrafts could be the next ones.

So what about force shields now? Ok, this could take some decades but the first steps are being taken. It’s not a mistery they have a lot of support from the High Spheres. Is it because the Force is strong with them or is it just because of their heavy lobbying and influence peddling? Oops…

I received some new photos from Farnborough Airshow 2010. These are from yesterday, Saturday July 17. I really want to thank the source of this and the previous set of images. This person prefers to stay anonymous but definetely deserves some credit since the quality is incredible.

Unfortunately I had to resize them to a smaller size in order to not slow down too much the website but they still look great. If I receive more I will publish them right away.

These are some cool images from Farnborough 2010, a seven day international trade fair for the aerospace business. It’s held every two years in UK and on the last two days the general public is admitted.

I remember when I was younger (I lived in Europe at that time) and I visited during the non-public days thanks to my father. It’s a great show because pilots push their aircrafts to the limit in order to impress potential customers and investors.

Ok, the food wasn’t really there in the original picture and this kind of sarcasm should probably not come from a “desktop pilot” like me… But is this the evolution of the fighter pilot?

With so many UAVs being developed for the future we have to ask ourselves if there will be a cockpit in the next-generation combat aircraft. There is no doubt that this is the direction the military powers of the world are taking and, whether we like it or not, every year the number of the unmanned programs grows. It doesn’t matter if today’s fighter pilots mock them, the decision is clearly out of their hands.

Call me nostalgic, retrograde or old-fashioned but I am not very enthusiastic about this. What happened to the “man against man” live confrontation? Will it become a “nerd versus nerd” on-line couch confrontation?  Is “game over” the most deadly event that these future pilots will face?

Well one thing is sure. In the future the physical requirements for combat pilots will be way less restrictive. Near-sighted pilot wannabe’s… there is chance for you in tomorrow’s aviation!

Now… where’s that cheesy Paramount movie?