1.21 gigawatt laser?

(via Engadget)

Well, maybe not quite Back to the Future levels of power.  But it looks like the military is trying to get funding a super high powered lasers to destroy enemy satellites:

So far a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee has “shot down” the program, which would build on a 1997 Pentagon study of a two-million-watt laser, although the full committee could reinstate the provision following analysis of the full bill. Although certain military interests have pushed for anti-satellite weapons since the Cold War, concern over the space junk that destroyed sats would create has kept the international community from serious pursuit of any “Star Wars”-like programs.

Got that? Two-million watt lasers.  That’s extreme.  Handy for shooting down all those Al Queda satellites, too, I suppose.

[tags]Lasers, military weapons[/tags]