Laser-armed Humvees

Humvee with frikkin laser on it takes out killer robot • The Register.

A laser-armed Humvee shot down a UAV at a useful range. That’s a start. What is really needed is high-power lasers to remotely detonate IEDs and take down RPGs and other hand-launched rockets. A clever approach to that task is to destabilise the rockets in-flight, since they’re have relatively simple-minded guidance, at best.

Eventually a “deflector field” could be created – any high-speed projectile on an inbound trajectory around a given volume could be thrown off-course and destroyed by the tracking-and-lasering combo. This would take a much more efficient “wallplug-to-laser-beam” ratio – most lasers pump out too much heat to be reused rapidly.