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WATCH: Navy's New Laser Gun in Action at Sea

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Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 11.33.07 PMA new laser gun mounted on the USS Ponce has been operational for months in the Persian Gulf, and it has exceeded expectations as far as its range and durability, senior Navy officers said Wednesday.

The Navy calls it the LaWS, short for laser weapon system. It was installed on the Ponce over the summer, and deployed this fall. Video released by the service on Wednesday shows it taking out an incoming speedboat in a test at a long, undisclosed range with directed energy. No laser beam can be seen, but the boat bursts into flames.

“It’s almost like a Hubble telescope at sea,” said Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, the Navy’s chief of naval research. “Literally, we’re able to get that kind of power and magnification.”

The USS Ponce conducts tests of the Office of Naval Research-funded Laser Weapons System (LaWS) while in the Persian Gulf on Nov. 14. Directed energy weapons can counter asymmetric threats, including unmanned and light aircraft and small attack boats. (John F. Williams/U.S. Navy)

The weapon has been in development for years. In a 2011 test, a laser was used to take out multiple small boats from a U.S. destroyer. In 2012, the LaWS downed seeral downed aircraft, Navy officials said.

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Say good bye to privacy forever: new DHS laser will instantly know everything about you – from 164 feet away!

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Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it.

The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security. In-Q-Tel is a company founded “in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of the CIA and with the support of the U.S. Congress.” According to In-Q-Tel, they are the bridge between the Agency and new technology companies.

Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States. The official, stated goal of this arrangement is to be able to quickly identify explosives, dangerous chemicals, or bioweapons at a distance.

The machine is ten million times faster—and one million times more sensitive—than any currently available system. That means that it can be used systematically on everyone passing through airport security, not just suspect or randomly sampled people.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: andrea.pacelli