U.S. Navy's Laser - Anti-Pirate Solution

Article.

It's pretty cool. They're using the same optical image stabilization that locks in on Space Shuttle launches, making them rock steady, and can dial it up to destroy things like boat engines and people, or dial it down to make it a nuisance/deterrant.

Here's the 1 minute YouTube video put out by the Office of Naval Research demonstrating the ability of the laser to lock onto one area of the engine and take it out.

Of course, this doesn't eliminate the need for a good sniper aboard commercial cargo ships...

Neat, but impractical.
Hitting a boat, sitting in the water is neat, keeping that beam focused on a moving boat long enough to cause damage is another.
(One can only imagine the powerplant to supply enough electricity to power that laser)

A Navy sniper with a 50BMG would probably have the same effect (shutting down the engine) and only take a second.

yawn...

We've had the ability to do this sort of thing with satellite-based focused microwave beam weapons since the 1980s.

MASERs aren't/haven't been scaled to high-power application. Modulating MASERs would go a long way in improving our ability to communicate wirelessly. That and precooking turkeys in mid-air.

Technology always starts out big, heavy, and expensive, and then becomes more useful.

Just wait 25 years until this technology get refined & is put into the hands of the police, no more need for Tazers, they will just Burn you.........scary times we live in or are about to live in.

YOu said this thing works on engine blocks hmmmmm this should be fun where do i get one ?