Naval
Sea Systems Command, with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center
Dahlgren, for the second time successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed
a threat representative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle while in flight. This
marks the first Detect-Thru-Engage laser shoot-down of a threat representative
target in an over-the-water, combat representative scenario. Comments
left by low-information viewers criticize the accomplishment because
a slow-flying drone target was used vs. a real-life target like a missile.
These are the same types who said the Strategic Defense Initiative
(aka 'Star Wars') would never work, but
now the technology regularly intercepts rockets fired from Gaza into
Israel. Moving object tracking and targeting systems, among other aspects
of the research, has benefitted many technologies from automatic car
parking to Earth-threatening asteroid monitoring, and, eventually, interception.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools"
in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide
me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing
my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet)
was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity.
Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line,
and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...
