Lasers are targeting American aircraft in the Western Pacific/East China Sea

Waiting for them to release the video: "Don't laze me, bro!"

originally posted by: Jason79
Why don't they put little a little shelf on the front of airplanes to block lasers? At 35 thousand feet and the cockpit window angle to the ground, it shouldn't need to stick out more than a inch or two. Of course it would lose effectivity while landing.

Better still, a nice polished shiny ellipsoid mirror. Whatever direction the laser comes from, it will be reflected back.

In my last workplace I had people several desks away from me test radar systems for yachts. Never quite sure if they were live or not, but just for safety, I strung a line of empty soda cans on my cubicle wall. Strangely enough, they stopped doing those tests.

a reply to: stormcell

Testing your McGiver chaff?

a reply to: anzha



Question is, why do American fighters/ recon/ spy/bomber plane fly so close to their borders..? Looking for troubles..?

a reply to: anzha

Remind me again how close they are to China compared to the continental USA. Disputed islands.

US planes wouldn't be spying would they?


wiki

Where does the US have bases
Despite recently closing hundreds of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad—from giant “Little Americas” to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined.

originally posted by: Kkintekk
a reply to: anzha



Question is, why do American fighters/ recon/ spy/bomber plane fly so close to their borders..? Looking for troubles..?

Well there’s the fact that they’re in legally international areas China trying to impose its BS buffer zone that the expect everyone to respect dispite the fact that they have no legal standing and just drew an arbitrary exclusion zone. And as far as people defending China on this keep in mind this is the same China that had suicidal pilots crash into our aircraft and caused a big mess when it came to recovering our plane that had to make an emergency landing on a Chinese airstrip. China eventually gave it back after milking every bit of technical intelligence they could gather...

a reply to: Jason79

You'd think by now the military would have them protected

www.cbc.ca...

New ultra-thin film may protect pilots from laser beams University of Moncton researcher's film is in the early stages of commercial development

a reply to: KungfuStu

ah shucks, victim blaming?
Ya must have missed that they are economic competitors

a reply to: BigDave-AR

I remember Israel doing the same with the USS Liberty. Funny how the US still pumps billions into Israel

As to exclusion zones - China's just following the West, nothing new

www.quora.com... tificial-islands

UN can’t. China has veto rights as its on the security council.

While I disagree with any country militarizing the south China sea, The US or the UN has no right to interfere, IMHO. Countries including Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have been doing it for years. China Leveraged complaints in the past and while the US mildly condemned allies like Taiwan and the Philippines we (Americans) didn’t do anything about it.

We set that presidence ourselves. When our allies were doing it it wasn’t ideal, but acceptable. We condemned but took no action. Now that China is doing it and they aren’t our allies, we are trying taking action. In my option that’s not good policy. Taiwan, in particular, has been militarizing islands much longer and had airstrips on reclamation projects long before China even started building

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: BigDave-AR

I remember Israel doing the same with the USS Liberty. Funny how the US still pumps billions into Israel

As to exclusion zones - China's just following the West, nothing new

www.quora.com... tificial-islands

UN can’t. China has veto rights as its on the security council.

While I disagree with any country militarizing the south China sea, The US or the UN has no right to interfere, IMHO. Countries including Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have been doing it for years. China Leveraged complaints in the past and while the US mildly condemned allies like Taiwan and the Philippines we (Americans) didn’t do anything about it.

We set that presidence ourselves. When our allies were doing it it wasn’t ideal, but acceptable. We condemned but took no action. Now that China is doing it and they aren’t our allies, we are trying taking action. In my option that’s not good policy. Taiwan, in particular, has been militarizing islands much longer and had airstrips on reclamation projects long before China even started building

Apples and avacados I don’t condone the action against the Liberty Isreal was in a shooting war and snafus are more understandable in that kind of situation. And when we escort aircraft near our territorial waters we don’t make wildly dangerous hot dog flips over the aircraft causing the death of the pilot and delivering tech to them. I take it you feel the the Norks capturing the Publeo was a legitimate action despite it being in international waters?

a reply to: odzeandennz

Russian aircraft fly near the US weekly, sometimes daily. They also carry out mock attack runs against cities in Europe. China does much worse to other nations near them, and flies near our allies doing the same thing all the time.

a reply to: Kkintekk

For the same reason Russia and China do it near other countries. Reconnaissance.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Exactly what action are we taking? Freedom of navigation exercises? That's not exactly serious action. We didn't do the same when our allies did it because they are allies.

Not much action as far as I can see. Possibly endangering pilot safety is not a serious matter.
Why is it someone very senior isn't saying to China "Hey Wang, act aggressively by shining one more laser at a piece of US hardware and there will be a nice friendly Maverick (or whatever) missile coming to say hello very soon"

a reply to: Moley

Because, technically, shining a laser pointer, which is essentially what these are, at a plane isn't an act of war. Shooting a missile or something back would be overkill.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Moley

Because, technically, shining a laser pointer, which is essentially what these are, at a plane isn't an act of war. Shooting a missile or something back would be overkill.

Soooo

Shining a bigger, brighter laser back (and possibly slicing their ship in half) would be.....cool? I mean, its just laser for laser "fun," right?

a reply to: CreationBro

Shining a similar one back would be, but a weapons grade laser would be the same as shooting a missile at them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

These are a bit stronger than just a laser pointer. But far, far less than a weapons grade laser.

a reply to: anzha

I know, that's why I said "essentially" what it is. If it was a lot more powerful, or near weapons grade the injuries would be much worse, and there might even be evidence on the aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Really meant for others than you.

I'd bet something around 10 watts, but no more than 50. Depends on the wavelength.