Why has Boeing created a military vehicle with a giant laser cannon mounted on top?
The technology to create high-power lasers has been around for decades. It’s only in the last 20 years, however, with the increasingly sophisticated use of computers on the battlefield and power-output efficiencies of lasers, that tactical use of lasers for defence has become practical.
Boeing has taken this a step further by strapping a ten-kilowatt solid-state laser to the roof of an eightwheeled, 370-kilowatt (500-horsepower), Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck that also houses the laser’s power source.