This insane military laser weapon burned a hole through a truck a mile away

A successful test of Lockheed Martin’s ATHENA military laser punched a hole through a running Ford F-150 pickup truck at more than a mile away, proving that military grade lasers are anything but science fiction.

In fact, ATHENA’s power is orders of magnitude higher than what the Terminator requested in the movie of the same name: instead of a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range, ATHENA directs 30 kilowatts of energy downrange.

ATHENA is based on the Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) laser weapon system developed by Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, Calif., which has been proven to be effective against small airborne and sea-based targets, according to the company. It incorporates the 30-kilowatt Accelerated Laser Demonstration Initiative (ALADIN) fiber laser. Lockheed Martin said that the system combines multiple fiber lasers into a single, unified beam using a technique called spectral beam combining that’s much more powerful than the individual laser modules themselves.

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Story added 9. March 2015, content source with full text you can find at link above.