Laser Shone at F15

[quid21]

I find it a bit worrying that an off the shelf item can potentially "take out" the pilot of a state of the art military aircraft, I can see bulk orders being taken from certain parts of the globe as we speak !

In Theatre Mil pilots do have various buts of kit to negate the effect, & also have big sticks to show the baddies the error of their ways.

But what about the mk1 eyeball?

[willow70]

The USAF should be able to respond to these in about 6 years .http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... close.html

[page_verify]

In war zones, this type of thing is more common than you'd imagine (we were the ones doing it in the Falklands....) and prepared for. However, aircrew are also prepared for chemical attacks but they shouldn't have to wear NBC kit in their homeland.

[teeonefixer]

I hope the authorities understand that the enthusiast community will do everything in their powers to prevent such stupidity and won't put in more restrictions at bases. However, it looks like the offenders operate some way away so cannot be apprehended easily.

[gyvespa]

It would appear the US Navy are ahead on this.

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... is-summer/

Note that it's dated 2014, I've seen video of it on You-Tube as well.

If the Government can ban hunting knives, firearms, pepper spray, etc from being owned or carried in public, I'm sure they could class Laser Pointers as weapons.
What concerns me is the damage they could do, 'proper' laser light is invisible and BLINDS permanently.
These are obviously of a different frequency or filtered to make the light visible.
However, I wouldn't have thought anyone would be silly enough to modify one, would they ?

I'm not aware of the technology behind these pointers but I think that they are too bright and completely unneeded in private hands.
I used lasers in industry for many years and am well aware of their potential power.

I had a boy of about 6 shine one at the side of my head in a supermarket recently.
I didn't get it in my eye though, he was hiding behind a shelf shining it through the gaps at the people in the queue.
I could see it on my reflection in the shop window.
On the way out of the shop I gave him a Paddington Stare and said that it's not a very clever thing to do.
From the look on his face he obviously thought I hadn't noticed.
His Mum looked a bit surprised as well, she must have known what he was up to though as him and his sister were sniggering as he was doing it.
Responsible parenting.

So it's not all done by Chavs and Terrorists.

[Unknown74]

it's a wonder it didn't trigger a lazer Guided Weapon, that person responsible would have been sorry.

[page_verify]

it's a wonder it didn't trigger a lazer Guided Weapon, that person responsible would have been sorry.

Assuming your comment was serious, you'll be glad to know that there's no chance of that happening. The laser beams that laser guided weapons use are anything but a single continuous beam of light. If that was the case.....

[gyvespa]

Weapons use a cone of light.
The sensor follows this down to the tip, which is the target (or target designator).
I think it's likely to be invisible as well otherwise it'd be a bit obvious what the next target was.

If you shine a single beam the weapon would have to find it first.

[Dan423]

Hoping this isn't linked to the daft protesters that were outside the gate when I left work last week. Not sure if hippies believe in lasers though?

[page_verify]

Weapons use a cone of light.
The sensor follows this down to the tip, which is the target (or target designator).
I think it's likely to be invisible as well otherwise it'd be a bit obvious what the next target was.

If you shine a single beam the weapon would have to find it first.

They're invisible coded beams of pulses, and invisible to the human eye.

[ChrisCwmbran]

A lot of this has happened to airline pilots going into Cardiff recently too

On a slightly different but connected subject I was driving from Cardiff into Barry a few months ago and the idiot teenagers in the car behind were shining a laser pointer into my rear view mirror so it reflected into my eyes.

We called the police but by the time they caught up with them they were unable to prove anything.

I swear even now my eye doesn't quite focus right :/

[The Phantom]

Total idiots. About time the government got tough with these scumbags - no matter what the do-gooders think!

Signed Andy's petition. Let's hope plenty more do and action can be taken.

[romeo bravo]

Remember being on a cadet camp on a large training area in East Anglia and the same area was being used by MH53s fom Mildenhall for Ops training.

The MH landed and briefed the cadets not to shine any type of laser pen at the aircraft in case it triggers it's self-defence mode. The crew then preceeded to show us what it could do, far better than its display at airshows.

[paddyboy]

I've signed it

Well done Andy

I certainly couldn't tell you all my opinion of this 'episode', as it would result in the removal, instantaneously, of this incandescent old frat for a catalogue of transgressions of the forum rules

Paddyboy

[grumpy616]

I certainly couldn't tell you all my opinion of this 'episode', as it would result in the removal, instantaneously, of this incandescent old frat for a catalogue of transgressions of the forum rules

If I'm reading that right Paddy, you're saying you might say a few naughty words
Right there with you sir. Pond scum has more intelligence than the people that do this.

[TankBuster]

The culprits should spend a week as training dummies with the 48th SPS dog section. I'm sure they could learn the error of their ways when a great big police dog is chasing them across the training ground!

I've seen their dogs in action, and it frightened me just watching what they can do .

TankBuster

[wezgulf3]

An Army Apache got done a few years ago one night over London, you could hear the anger in the voice on the guy on the Radio and he was very serious when he asked if he could engage the culprits with the lasers.

These incidents should carry a serious jail term (if caught) but we all know that wont happen.

Wes...

[Snoop 95]

BBC have the story today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-35716722

[Stroudy]

At least its a semi-decent story this time without the sensationalism.. which is because its not in the DF.

[paddyboy]

There has just been a piece on our local Radio (Norfolk) with base person(s) stating that, although neither crew member was injured, one or both was disoriented for a short while, and that this could have been catastrophic, had it been a worst case scenario

It does not bear thinking whereabouts that jet could have impacted

Paddyboy