Navy Laser Burns Ship

The Navy has been the butt of jokes for years, and the Village People didn’t help. But let’s not forget that when some pirates took Americans hostage a few years ago, the Navy simply brought in a few of their trained snipers, who shot them all in the head from hundreds of yards away on a ship going up and down at random intervals. Even the “sailors are gay” joke has been kind made bad-ass thanks to Shore Leave from the Venture Brothers.

And now the Navy has a death ray.

Wired’s Danger Room has video of the solid-state laser in action, drilling through an engine and igniting its fuel tanks. In short, it’s a death ray.

The Navy is being overly modest, insisting that this is just a demonstration unit and it’s only 15 kilowatts (actual deployed lasers will rate in the hundreds of kilowatts). And they’re not designed to be used on people: they’re designed to take out engines, ammo caches, and other machines the Navy doesn’t want working on enemy ships. That said, tough luck for any people who happen to be in the way: engines need serious shielding to keep this from frying them.

So we’ll stop with the gay jokes, Navy, just don’t zap uSSSAAAAGGGH!