U.S. Navy deploys laser cannon

Story here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/u-s-navy-deploys-its-first-laser-weapon-in-the-persian-gulf.html

The laser is now afloat for a good wringing out under real conditions at sea. The following Navy footage shows last year's version.



A really neat thing about ray gun weapons is that windage and drop are not factors in the shot. Another is that the ammunition, so to speak, is simply electricity. The article says firing the 30-kilowatt weapon costs about a dollar a shot. During the worst of the ammo shortages you could spend more than that much firing some pistol rounds.

Still another neat thing is that the power output can be scaled down. Think of how handy that will be when the technology trickles down to hunting weapons. A hunter will not need both a squirrel rifle and a big game rifle, for he will have a power dial on his rifle. But I don't suppose I should call it a rifle, if I want to be precise in my use of words, because a laser beam needs no rifling to shoot straight. Let's start thinking up a new term now for this thing which we carry around and shoot, for change is on the way.