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Astronomers Discover 3I/ATLAS, Largest Interstellar Comet Yet Detected

Astronomers Discover 3I/ATLAS, Largest Interstellar Comet Yet Detected

Astronomers have discovered the third interstellar comet to pass through our solar system. Named 3I/ATLAS (initially A11pl3Z), it was first spotted July 1 by the ATLAS telescope in Chile and confirmed the same day. Pre-discovery images show it in the sky as far back as mid-June. The object is racing toward the inner system at roughly 150,000 miles per hour on a near-straight trajectory, too fast for the Sun to capture. Estimates suggest its nucleus may be 10–20 km across. Now inside Jupiter’s orbit, 3I/ATLAS will swing closest to the Sun in October and should remain observable into late 2025.

Discovery and Classification

According to NASA, in early July the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile spotted a faint moving object first called A11pl3Z, and the IAU’s Minor Planet Center confirmed the next day that it was an interstellar visitor. The object was officially named 3I/ATLAS and noted as likely the largest interstellar body yet detected. At first it appeared to be an ordinary near-Earth asteroid, but precise orbit measurements showed it speeding at ~150,000 mph – far too fast for the Sun to capture. Astronomers estimate 3I/ATLAS spans roughly 10–20 km across. Signs of cometary activity – a faint coma and short tail – have emerged, earning it the additional comet designation C/2025 N1 (ATLAS).

Studying a Pristine Comet

3I/ATLAS was spotted well before its closest approach, giving astronomers time to prepare detailed observations. It will pass within about 1.4 AU of the Sun in late October. Importantly, researchers can study it while it is still a pristine frozen relic before solar heating alters it. As Pamela Gay notes, discovering the object on its inbound leg leaves “ample time” to analyze its trajectory. Astronomers are now racing to obtain spectra and images – as Chris Lintott warns, the comet will be “baked” by sunlight as it nears perihelion.

Determining its composition and activity is considered “a rare chance” to learn how planets form in other star systems. With new facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory coming online, researchers expect more such visitors in the years ahead. 3I/ATLAS offers a rare chance to study material from another star system.

 

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX spent an eye-watering $18.4 billion in its first quarter as a publicly traded company and warned investors to expect similarly high spending in the next two financial quarters, sending the stock price down more than 8% in late trading on Tuesday evening. A whopping $15.8 billion of that spending was to power its artificial intelligence efforts, a division that ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion net operating loss.

The figure comes from the company’s first earnings report since the record-setting initial public offering hit the market in mid-June. Although the IPO was surely an amazing day for Musk, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire, things have not been all peachy since then, with the stock price currently well below its IPO price. As of last week, the company’s stock was so far down from its IPO highs that the value it shed was roughly equal to Musk’s other company, Tesla’s, market capitalization. Tuesday’s stock sales are unlikely to help that scenario, and neither is the fact that the company’s first lockup period ends on Thursday, meaning some company insiders will be able to sell more than $100 billion worth of stock for the first time since SpaceX went public.

To ease some of those worries, Musk promised dramatic AI advancements.

“Our rate of growth certainly is faster than anyone else, and our efficiency of compute deployment I think is also the highest,” Musk claimed. “So we expect to end this year with over two gigawatts of compute, and probably our cumulative compute online by the end of next year will be several times higher.”

Those compute plans are ambitious, but Musk struck a defiant tone against any doubters in the earnings call on Tuesday.

“The terrestrial data centers are a trivial problem compared to making gigantic reusable rockets which are launched frequently,” Musk said.

Musk said SpaceX’s data centers will be exclusively built on Nvidia chips. The two companies are also partnering to build Starmind AI satellites, a part of SpaceX’s even more ambitious plan to put a giant colony of up to a million AI data centers in Earth’s orbit. Some experts are hesitant that Musk and his company will be able to pull off the space-based data center colony plan, while many have also raised concerns about the environmental, economic, and social impact of such a huge launch program if it does pan out as promised.

On the call, Musk said that SpaceX would begin launching the Starmind AI satellites in 2027.

The company will also be unveiling Grok 5 before the end of the year, which Musk said would be trained on “all the data that SpaceX has ever produced,” making the chatbot “by far the best engineer.” Musk has previously claimed the yet-to-be-unveiled LLM will be AGI-level, aka a contested hypothetical AI that would theoretically equal or beat all human capabilities.

“We expect the cadence of AI development to improve dramatically,” Musk said. “I think, by the end of next year, it’s not clear to me that there’s anything digital at least that AI won’t be able to do based on the current rate of improvement.”

All of this comes with a huge, obvious caveat: Musk has long had a penchant for overpromising. His hefty promises extended beyond the AI sphere on Tuesday as well, with the CEO claiming that the company’s space business would be launching a rocket a day by next year and that there will be robots working in manufacturing operations on the literal Moon.

“I know this sounds totally nuts, but you can probably scale to a thousand times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space, but probably maybe even a million times,” Musk claimed. “We’re going to build the factories on the Moon; the robots will be helpful with that.

#SpaceX #Stock #Drops #Earnings #Call #Musk #Fails #Woo #Investors #Goalscapex,Elon Musk,SPACEX">SpaceX Stock Drops After First Earnings Call as Musk Fails to Woo Investors With AI Goals
                Elon Musk’s SpaceX spent an eye-watering .4 billion in its first quarter as a publicly traded company and warned investors to expect similarly high spending in the next two financial quarters, sending the stock price down more than 8% in late trading on Tuesday evening. A whopping .8 billion of that spending was to power its artificial intelligence efforts, a division that ended the quarter with a .3 billion net operating loss. The figure comes from the company’s first earnings report since the record-setting initial public offering hit the market in mid-June. Although the IPO was surely an amazing day for Musk, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire, things have not been all peachy since then, with the stock price currently well below its IPO price. As of last week, the company’s stock was so far down from its IPO highs that the value it shed was roughly equal to Musk’s other company, Tesla’s, market capitalization. Tuesday’s stock sales are unlikely to help that scenario, and neither is the fact that the company’s first lockup period ends on Thursday, meaning some company insiders will be able to sell more than 0 billion worth of stock for the first time since SpaceX went public. To ease some of those worries, Musk promised dramatic AI advancements. “Our rate of growth certainly is faster than anyone else, and our efficiency of compute deployment I think is also the highest,” Musk claimed. “So we expect to end this year with over two gigawatts of compute, and probably our cumulative compute online by the end of next year will be several times higher.”

 Those compute plans are ambitious, but Musk struck a defiant tone against any doubters in the earnings call on Tuesday. “The terrestrial data centers are a trivial problem compared to making gigantic reusable rockets which are launched frequently,” Musk said.

 Musk said SpaceX’s data centers will be exclusively built on Nvidia chips. The two companies are also partnering to build Starmind AI satellites, a part of SpaceX’s even more ambitious plan to put a giant colony of up to a million AI data centers in Earth’s orbit. Some experts are hesitant that Musk and his company will be able to pull off the space-based data center colony plan, while many have also raised concerns about the environmental, economic, and social impact of such a huge launch program if it does pan out as promised. On the call, Musk said that SpaceX would begin launching the Starmind AI satellites in 2027.

 The company will also be unveiling Grok 5 before the end of the year, which Musk said would be trained on “all the data that SpaceX has ever produced,” making the chatbot “by far the best engineer.” Musk has previously claimed the yet-to-be-unveiled LLM will be AGI-level, aka a contested hypothetical AI that would theoretically equal or beat all human capabilities. “We expect the cadence of AI development to improve dramatically,” Musk said. “I think, by the end of next year, it’s not clear to me that there’s anything digital at least that AI won’t be able to do based on the current rate of improvement.” All of this comes with a huge, obvious caveat: Musk has long had a penchant for overpromising. His hefty promises extended beyond the AI sphere on Tuesday as well, with the CEO claiming that the company’s space business would be launching a rocket a day by next year and that there will be robots working in manufacturing operations on the literal Moon.

 “I know this sounds totally nuts, but you can probably scale to a thousand times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space, but probably maybe even a million times,” Musk claimed. “We’re going to build the factories on the Moon; the robots will be helpful with that.      #SpaceX #Stock #Drops #Earnings #Call #Musk #Fails #Woo #Investors #Goalscapex,Elon Musk,SPACEX

down more than 8% in late trading on Tuesday evening. A whopping $15.8 billion of that spending was to power its artificial intelligence efforts, a division that ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion net operating loss.

The figure comes from the company’s first earnings report since the record-setting initial public offering hit the market in mid-June. Although the IPO was surely an amazing day for Musk, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire, things have not been all peachy since then, with the stock price currently well below its IPO price. As of last week, the company’s stock was so far down from its IPO highs that the value it shed was roughly equal to Musk’s other company, Tesla’s, market capitalization. Tuesday’s stock sales are unlikely to help that scenario, and neither is the fact that the company’s first lockup period ends on Thursday, meaning some company insiders will be able to sell more than $100 billion worth of stock for the first time since SpaceX went public.

To ease some of those worries, Musk promised dramatic AI advancements.

“Our rate of growth certainly is faster than anyone else, and our efficiency of compute deployment I think is also the highest,” Musk claimed. “So we expect to end this year with over two gigawatts of compute, and probably our cumulative compute online by the end of next year will be several times higher.”

Those compute plans are ambitious, but Musk struck a defiant tone against any doubters in the earnings call on Tuesday.

“The terrestrial data centers are a trivial problem compared to making gigantic reusable rockets which are launched frequently,” Musk said.

Musk said SpaceX’s data centers will be exclusively built on Nvidia chips. The two companies are also partnering to build Starmind AI satellites, a part of SpaceX’s even more ambitious plan to put a giant colony of up to a million AI data centers in Earth’s orbit. Some experts are hesitant that Musk and his company will be able to pull off the space-based data center colony plan, while many have also raised concerns about the environmental, economic, and social impact of such a huge launch program if it does pan out as promised.

On the call, Musk said that SpaceX would begin launching the Starmind AI satellites in 2027.

The company will also be unveiling Grok 5 before the end of the year, which Musk said would be trained on “all the data that SpaceX has ever produced,” making the chatbot “by far the best engineer.” Musk has previously claimed the yet-to-be-unveiled LLM will be AGI-level, aka a contested hypothetical AI that would theoretically equal or beat all human capabilities.

“We expect the cadence of AI development to improve dramatically,” Musk said. “I think, by the end of next year, it’s not clear to me that there’s anything digital at least that AI won’t be able to do based on the current rate of improvement.”

All of this comes with a huge, obvious caveat: Musk has long had a penchant for overpromising. His hefty promises extended beyond the AI sphere on Tuesday as well, with the CEO claiming that the company’s space business would be launching a rocket a day by next year and that there will be robots working in manufacturing operations on the literal Moon.

“I know this sounds totally nuts, but you can probably scale to a thousand times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space, but probably maybe even a million times,” Musk claimed. “We’re going to build the factories on the Moon; the robots will be helpful with that.

#SpaceX #Stock #Drops #Earnings #Call #Musk #Fails #Woo #Investors #Goalscapex,Elon Musk,SPACEX">SpaceX Stock Drops After First Earnings Call as Musk Fails to Woo Investors With AI GoalsSpaceX Stock Drops After First Earnings Call as Musk Fails to Woo Investors With AI Goals
                Elon Musk’s SpaceX spent an eye-watering $18.4 billion in its first quarter as a publicly traded company and warned investors to expect similarly high spending in the next two financial quarters, sending the stock price down more than 8% in late trading on Tuesday evening. A whopping $15.8 billion of that spending was to power its artificial intelligence efforts, a division that ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion net operating loss. The figure comes from the company’s first earnings report since the record-setting initial public offering hit the market in mid-June. Although the IPO was surely an amazing day for Musk, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire, things have not been all peachy since then, with the stock price currently well below its IPO price. As of last week, the company’s stock was so far down from its IPO highs that the value it shed was roughly equal to Musk’s other company, Tesla’s, market capitalization. Tuesday’s stock sales are unlikely to help that scenario, and neither is the fact that the company’s first lockup period ends on Thursday, meaning some company insiders will be able to sell more than $100 billion worth of stock for the first time since SpaceX went public. To ease some of those worries, Musk promised dramatic AI advancements. “Our rate of growth certainly is faster than anyone else, and our efficiency of compute deployment I think is also the highest,” Musk claimed. “So we expect to end this year with over two gigawatts of compute, and probably our cumulative compute online by the end of next year will be several times higher.”

 Those compute plans are ambitious, but Musk struck a defiant tone against any doubters in the earnings call on Tuesday. “The terrestrial data centers are a trivial problem compared to making gigantic reusable rockets which are launched frequently,” Musk said.

 Musk said SpaceX’s data centers will be exclusively built on Nvidia chips. The two companies are also partnering to build Starmind AI satellites, a part of SpaceX’s even more ambitious plan to put a giant colony of up to a million AI data centers in Earth’s orbit. Some experts are hesitant that Musk and his company will be able to pull off the space-based data center colony plan, while many have also raised concerns about the environmental, economic, and social impact of such a huge launch program if it does pan out as promised. On the call, Musk said that SpaceX would begin launching the Starmind AI satellites in 2027.

 The company will also be unveiling Grok 5 before the end of the year, which Musk said would be trained on “all the data that SpaceX has ever produced,” making the chatbot “by far the best engineer.” Musk has previously claimed the yet-to-be-unveiled LLM will be AGI-level, aka a contested hypothetical AI that would theoretically equal or beat all human capabilities. “We expect the cadence of AI development to improve dramatically,” Musk said. “I think, by the end of next year, it’s not clear to me that there’s anything digital at least that AI won’t be able to do based on the current rate of improvement.” All of this comes with a huge, obvious caveat: Musk has long had a penchant for overpromising. His hefty promises extended beyond the AI sphere on Tuesday as well, with the CEO claiming that the company’s space business would be launching a rocket a day by next year and that there will be robots working in manufacturing operations on the literal Moon.

 “I know this sounds totally nuts, but you can probably scale to a thousand times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space, but probably maybe even a million times,” Musk claimed. “We’re going to build the factories on the Moon; the robots will be helpful with that.      #SpaceX #Stock #Drops #Earnings #Call #Musk #Fails #Woo #Investors #Goalscapex,Elon Musk,SPACEX

Elon Musk’s SpaceX spent an eye-watering $18.4 billion in its first quarter as a publicly traded company and warned investors to expect similarly high spending in the next two financial quarters, sending the stock price down more than 8% in late trading on Tuesday evening. A whopping $15.8 billion of that spending was to power its artificial intelligence efforts, a division that ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion net operating loss.

The figure comes from the company’s first earnings report since the record-setting initial public offering hit the market in mid-June. Although the IPO was surely an amazing day for Musk, who briefly became the world’s first trillionaire, things have not been all peachy since then, with the stock price currently well below its IPO price. As of last week, the company’s stock was so far down from its IPO highs that the value it shed was roughly equal to Musk’s other company, Tesla’s, market capitalization. Tuesday’s stock sales are unlikely to help that scenario, and neither is the fact that the company’s first lockup period ends on Thursday, meaning some company insiders will be able to sell more than $100 billion worth of stock for the first time since SpaceX went public.

To ease some of those worries, Musk promised dramatic AI advancements.

“Our rate of growth certainly is faster than anyone else, and our efficiency of compute deployment I think is also the highest,” Musk claimed. “So we expect to end this year with over two gigawatts of compute, and probably our cumulative compute online by the end of next year will be several times higher.”

Those compute plans are ambitious, but Musk struck a defiant tone against any doubters in the earnings call on Tuesday.

“The terrestrial data centers are a trivial problem compared to making gigantic reusable rockets which are launched frequently,” Musk said.

Musk said SpaceX’s data centers will be exclusively built on Nvidia chips. The two companies are also partnering to build Starmind AI satellites, a part of SpaceX’s even more ambitious plan to put a giant colony of up to a million AI data centers in Earth’s orbit. Some experts are hesitant that Musk and his company will be able to pull off the space-based data center colony plan, while many have also raised concerns about the environmental, economic, and social impact of such a huge launch program if it does pan out as promised.

On the call, Musk said that SpaceX would begin launching the Starmind AI satellites in 2027.

The company will also be unveiling Grok 5 before the end of the year, which Musk said would be trained on “all the data that SpaceX has ever produced,” making the chatbot “by far the best engineer.” Musk has previously claimed the yet-to-be-unveiled LLM will be AGI-level, aka a contested hypothetical AI that would theoretically equal or beat all human capabilities.

“We expect the cadence of AI development to improve dramatically,” Musk said. “I think, by the end of next year, it’s not clear to me that there’s anything digital at least that AI won’t be able to do based on the current rate of improvement.”

All of this comes with a huge, obvious caveat: Musk has long had a penchant for overpromising. His hefty promises extended beyond the AI sphere on Tuesday as well, with the CEO claiming that the company’s space business would be launching a rocket a day by next year and that there will be robots working in manufacturing operations on the literal Moon.

“I know this sounds totally nuts, but you can probably scale to a thousand times the economy of Earth in terms of intelligence launched to space, but probably maybe even a million times,” Musk claimed. “We’re going to build the factories on the Moon; the robots will be helpful with that.

#SpaceX #Stock #Drops #Earnings #Call #Musk #Fails #Woo #Investors #Goalscapex,Elon Musk,SPACEX

real-life ray gun into a 747 to shoot down ballistic missiles and stuck a laser on top of a Humvee to zap roadside bombs. For more than 50 years, the United States military and its researchers have tried to develop laser weapons. None of them panned out.

But now, the US Army is about to make a working laser weapon an official part of its arsenal. The Pentagon is poised to sign a contract to acquire and rapidly deploy what’s called an Enduring High Energy Laser in and around bases across the world to defend them from drone attacks, according to sources familiar with the matter. The official announcement could come as early as this week. When the deal is signed, it will mark the first time that the US military will have committed to equipping its forces with laser weapons in significant numbers.

“For years, lasers were going to be the future, and they never really came to their own. Now, they’re actually coming to their own,” Mark J. Lewis, the former Air Force chief scientist, tells WIRED.

The Iran and Ukraine wars have shown that drones are now so cheap, so plentiful, and so deadly that they’re impossible to stop with any single countermeasure. Some of the traditional ones have been particularly clunky. During the early days of the Iran conflict, the US even resorted to firing $4 million Patriot missiles at $35,000 Iranian drones—a waste of money, and a move that depleted the American interceptor stockpile.

Modern lasers, on the other hand, never run out of ammunition. “Basically, you can keep firing them as long as you’ve got power,” Lewis says. “There are some other issues with lasers, including how rapidly you can refire and recharge. But if you solve those problems, then suddenly you’ve got a pretty nifty way to help counteract things like a drone swarm attack.”

That’s one reason why the US military, at this moment, has either deployed or is actively testing a half-dozen laser weapons systems, according to the Laser Wars newsletter. The Navy has installed laser “dazzlers” on two of its ships to blind drones’ electro-optical sensors. The Air Force’s command for Europe and Africa has sent Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapons System “to locations across the theater.” In late June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the Army’s test range in White Sands, New Mexico, for a demonstration of all sorts of directed-energy weapon projects.

The deployments haven’t all gone great. Four vehicles equipped with Raytheon air-defense lasers were yanked from the Middle East after poor reviews from soldiers. One laser, built by the defense contractor AeroVironment and positioned along the southern US border, accidentally zapped a party balloon in February, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly close the airspace around El Paso, Texas. Once it was reopened, the laser shot down a Border Patrol drone by mistake.

Despite such mishaps, the Army appears ready to go beyond the one-offs and the experiments. In fact, in some ways, the accidental kill helped make the case for the laser, proving it could actually take out such a drone.

The Pentagon and its suppliers had been scrambling to field something, anything to defend against mass-produced, low-cost attack drones. They’ve rolled out radio frequency jammers, microwave weapons, an array of missiles, drones designed to kill other drones, even copies of the Iranian robots. None of them in isolation have been enough. On March 1, an Iranian drone killed six US service members and injured 30 others.

#Landmark #Deal #Officially #Add #Laser #Weapons #Army #Arsenallasers,drones,weapons and ammo,iran,military,military tech,army">Landmark Deal Would Officially Add Laser Weapons to US Army ArsenalThey stuffed a real-life ray gun into a 747 to shoot down ballistic missiles and stuck a laser on top of a Humvee to zap roadside bombs. For more than 50 years, the United States military and its researchers have tried to develop laser weapons. None of them panned out.But now, the US Army is about to make a working laser weapon an official part of its arsenal. The Pentagon is poised to sign a contract to acquire and rapidly deploy what’s called an Enduring High Energy Laser in and around bases across the world to defend them from drone attacks, according to sources familiar with the matter. The official announcement could come as early as this week. When the deal is signed, it will mark the first time that the US military will have committed to equipping its forces with laser weapons in significant numbers.“For years, lasers were going to be the future, and they never really came to their own. Now, they’re actually coming to their own,” Mark J. Lewis, the former Air Force chief scientist, tells WIRED.The Iran and Ukraine wars have shown that drones are now so cheap, so plentiful, and so deadly that they’re impossible to stop with any single countermeasure. Some of the traditional ones have been particularly clunky. During the early days of the Iran conflict, the US even resorted to firing  million Patriot missiles at ,000 Iranian drones—a waste of money, and a move that depleted the American interceptor stockpile.Modern lasers, on the other hand, never run out of ammunition. “Basically, you can keep firing them as long as you’ve got power,” Lewis says. “There are some other issues with lasers, including how rapidly you can refire and recharge. But if you solve those problems, then suddenly you’ve got a pretty nifty way to help counteract things like a drone swarm attack.”That’s one reason why the US military, at this moment, has either deployed or is actively testing a half-dozen laser weapons systems, according to the Laser Wars newsletter. The Navy has installed laser “dazzlers” on two of its ships to blind drones’ electro-optical sensors. The Air Force’s command for Europe and Africa has sent Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapons System “to locations across the theater.” In late June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the Army’s test range in White Sands, New Mexico, for a demonstration of all sorts of directed-energy weapon projects.The deployments haven’t all gone great. Four vehicles equipped with Raytheon air-defense lasers were yanked from the Middle East after poor reviews from soldiers. One laser, built by the defense contractor AeroVironment and positioned along the southern US border, accidentally zapped a party balloon in February, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly close the airspace around El Paso, Texas. Once it was reopened, the laser shot down a Border Patrol drone by mistake.Despite such mishaps, the Army appears ready to go beyond the one-offs and the experiments. In fact, in some ways, the accidental kill helped make the case for the laser, proving it could actually take out such a drone.The Pentagon and its suppliers had been scrambling to field something, anything to defend against mass-produced, low-cost attack drones. They’ve rolled out radio frequency jammers, microwave weapons, an array of missiles, drones designed to kill other drones, even copies of the Iranian robots. None of them in isolation have been enough. On March 1, an Iranian drone killed six US service members and injured 30 others.#Landmark #Deal #Officially #Add #Laser #Weapons #Army #Arsenallasers,drones,weapons and ammo,iran,military,military tech,army

to shoot down ballistic missiles and stuck a laser on top of a Humvee to zap roadside bombs. For more than 50 years, the United States military and its researchers have tried to develop laser weapons. None of them panned out.

But now, the US Army is about to make a working laser weapon an official part of its arsenal. The Pentagon is poised to sign a contract to acquire and rapidly deploy what’s called an Enduring High Energy Laser in and around bases across the world to defend them from drone attacks, according to sources familiar with the matter. The official announcement could come as early as this week. When the deal is signed, it will mark the first time that the US military will have committed to equipping its forces with laser weapons in significant numbers.

“For years, lasers were going to be the future, and they never really came to their own. Now, they’re actually coming to their own,” Mark J. Lewis, the former Air Force chief scientist, tells WIRED.

The Iran and Ukraine wars have shown that drones are now so cheap, so plentiful, and so deadly that they’re impossible to stop with any single countermeasure. Some of the traditional ones have been particularly clunky. During the early days of the Iran conflict, the US even resorted to firing $4 million Patriot missiles at $35,000 Iranian drones—a waste of money, and a move that depleted the American interceptor stockpile.

Modern lasers, on the other hand, never run out of ammunition. “Basically, you can keep firing them as long as you’ve got power,” Lewis says. “There are some other issues with lasers, including how rapidly you can refire and recharge. But if you solve those problems, then suddenly you’ve got a pretty nifty way to help counteract things like a drone swarm attack.”

That’s one reason why the US military, at this moment, has either deployed or is actively testing a half-dozen laser weapons systems, according to the Laser Wars newsletter. The Navy has installed laser “dazzlers” on two of its ships to blind drones’ electro-optical sensors. The Air Force’s command for Europe and Africa has sent Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapons System “to locations across the theater.” In late June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the Army’s test range in White Sands, New Mexico, for a demonstration of all sorts of directed-energy weapon projects.

The deployments haven’t all gone great. Four vehicles equipped with Raytheon air-defense lasers were yanked from the Middle East after poor reviews from soldiers. One laser, built by the defense contractor AeroVironment and positioned along the southern US border, accidentally zapped a party balloon in February, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly close the airspace around El Paso, Texas. Once it was reopened, the laser shot down a Border Patrol drone by mistake.

Despite such mishaps, the Army appears ready to go beyond the one-offs and the experiments. In fact, in some ways, the accidental kill helped make the case for the laser, proving it could actually take out such a drone.

The Pentagon and its suppliers had been scrambling to field something, anything to defend against mass-produced, low-cost attack drones. They’ve rolled out radio frequency jammers, microwave weapons, an array of missiles, drones designed to kill other drones, even copies of the Iranian robots. None of them in isolation have been enough. On March 1, an Iranian drone killed six US service members and injured 30 others.

#Landmark #Deal #Officially #Add #Laser #Weapons #Army #Arsenallasers,drones,weapons and ammo,iran,military,military tech,army">Landmark Deal Would Officially Add Laser Weapons to US Army Arsenal

They stuffed a real-life ray gun into a 747 to shoot down ballistic missiles and stuck a laser on top of a Humvee to zap roadside bombs. For more than 50 years, the United States military and its researchers have tried to develop laser weapons. None of them panned out.

But now, the US Army is about to make a working laser weapon an official part of its arsenal. The Pentagon is poised to sign a contract to acquire and rapidly deploy what’s called an Enduring High Energy Laser in and around bases across the world to defend them from drone attacks, according to sources familiar with the matter. The official announcement could come as early as this week. When the deal is signed, it will mark the first time that the US military will have committed to equipping its forces with laser weapons in significant numbers.

“For years, lasers were going to be the future, and they never really came to their own. Now, they’re actually coming to their own,” Mark J. Lewis, the former Air Force chief scientist, tells WIRED.

The Iran and Ukraine wars have shown that drones are now so cheap, so plentiful, and so deadly that they’re impossible to stop with any single countermeasure. Some of the traditional ones have been particularly clunky. During the early days of the Iran conflict, the US even resorted to firing $4 million Patriot missiles at $35,000 Iranian drones—a waste of money, and a move that depleted the American interceptor stockpile.

Modern lasers, on the other hand, never run out of ammunition. “Basically, you can keep firing them as long as you’ve got power,” Lewis says. “There are some other issues with lasers, including how rapidly you can refire and recharge. But if you solve those problems, then suddenly you’ve got a pretty nifty way to help counteract things like a drone swarm attack.”

That’s one reason why the US military, at this moment, has either deployed or is actively testing a half-dozen laser weapons systems, according to the Laser Wars newsletter. The Navy has installed laser “dazzlers” on two of its ships to blind drones’ electro-optical sensors. The Air Force’s command for Europe and Africa has sent Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapons System “to locations across the theater.” In late June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled to the Army’s test range in White Sands, New Mexico, for a demonstration of all sorts of directed-energy weapon projects.

The deployments haven’t all gone great. Four vehicles equipped with Raytheon air-defense lasers were yanked from the Middle East after poor reviews from soldiers. One laser, built by the defense contractor AeroVironment and positioned along the southern US border, accidentally zapped a party balloon in February, causing the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly close the airspace around El Paso, Texas. Once it was reopened, the laser shot down a Border Patrol drone by mistake.

Despite such mishaps, the Army appears ready to go beyond the one-offs and the experiments. In fact, in some ways, the accidental kill helped make the case for the laser, proving it could actually take out such a drone.

The Pentagon and its suppliers had been scrambling to field something, anything to defend against mass-produced, low-cost attack drones. They’ve rolled out radio frequency jammers, microwave weapons, an array of missiles, drones designed to kill other drones, even copies of the Iranian robots. None of them in isolation have been enough. On March 1, an Iranian drone killed six US service members and injured 30 others.

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