Military Working On Laser Powered Drones

disco_tracy writes "Modern militaries depend on fuel. Nearly 80 percent of the supplies delivered to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan consist of fuel, and it's no surprise that those military convoys are frequently the targets of insurgents. In the last decade, 1000 soldiers have died delivering gasoline to military operations. A new approach using lasers could provide power to drones in flight or to machines on the ground and remove the need for gas deliveries to army bases."

so where does the laser power come from ?

[RichMan]

"remove the need for gas deliveries to army bases", so where does the laser power sent to the drones come from ?

Or are we going to aim big orbital lasers at the army bases? That sounds like a good idea.

Also a dispersive light beam as described is not going to be efficient. R^2 losses on defocusing and all that. So more power needed at the base to send up to the drones.

Vaporware meets line of sight.

[azop]

Sounds like vaporware, which works out well for the government. They will spent zillions of dollars to find out, crap, it doesn't work. Lasers can't bend very well, so you need line of sight. Then, I have to ask, what powers the laser? Hell, I have a great idea on making a perpetual motion device. Okay, not really, but I might, and I'll gladly accept zillion of dollars to prove to you that it doesn't work.

Re:Gasoline?

[Joce640k]

I thought all that gas was used for air conditioning.

a) I can't imagine drones account for much gas
b) With lasers drone will be limited to line-of-sight
c) Laser power will require *much* more energy than gas, where will the power for the lasers come from?
d) It's a crap idea which will never work

Another fine example of military pork spending.

If you want to save lives, why not just send everybody home?

Re:Distortion of statistics

[geekoid]

" unless you think its just going to run on sunshine and rainbows?"
Kinda:
Sunshine
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/us-military-brings-solar-power-to-its-front-lines/4321 [smartplanet.com]
http://www.military-solar-power.com/ [military-solar-power.com]
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/military-products/military-products.php [powerfilmsolar.com]

AS for rainbows, they could use the drug crops and turn it into biofuels.

I person is killed form enemy action for every 24 convoys. So, yea 1000 killed due to enemy action sounds about right.

"As with most things related to the military, some idiot gets a number, then goes completely doom and gloom, and suddenly OMFG WE GOTTA STOP THAT!
As with most thing in the military, it did not happen that way.

"As they say in Counter Strike .
ah, I see. Your military/logistics experience comes from a kids game,how cute.

"Note: I as expected, did not read the actual article, just the summary. Its more fun that way."
I have no idea why someone finds it fun to be completely wrong.