By lex, on January 4th, 2010
The Navy peers into the future *:
(The Office of Naval Research) is working on developing a free-electron laser, with applications on land, at sea and in the air. Its speed will be ideal for ballistic missile defense and could revolutionize the Aegis Combat System. Today, naval officers are getting hands-on experience with the FEL at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., which has a prototype of the technology.
Other projects include the unmanned fighter jets that will join the Navy’s future air wings. The Unmanned Combat Air System is scheduled to make its first test flight this year. Navy leaders openly talk about it replacing the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets after 2025.
I’ve got two Bureau Numbers in my log book sitting on the flight deck of the USS Midway museum downtown, but hearing open talk about retiring an airplane I never got around to flying is starting to make me feel ret old fashioned.
* 09-23-2018 Link Gone; no replacements found – Ed.
09-23-2018 – Lex was a fan of at least 2 science-fiction series: Battlestar Galactica (the newer one) and Firefly. I got a kick out of his title – Ed.
