and the Pentagon gives us a turkey for Christmas

The Army's new family truckster...doesn't really
work too well yet but in another 10 years....it might
work but we need another war to use it

Our little elves in the military planning and procurement departments have been, how shall we say, busy little beavers. We now have a laser mounted to a truck that will shoot drones out of the air and mortar rounds in mid-flight "turning them into rocks".

The army claims to have only spent $13 million a year on this, this, this thing.  When pigs fly. It has 10 more years of testing to go so unless we are in Afghanistan for 10 more years, we will be out of wars to use it in. So count on another war so we have someplace for this.

Here are a couple "take aways" from the Army press release.  Read 'em and weep.

So far the Army's laser testing program has cost about $13 million a year since it began in 2011. But over the long term it looks like a good deal as the cost of taking out each mortar round is estimated to be the price of a cup of diesel fuel.

That is tactically useful because the laser weapon is a “serial killer,” Bauer says – meaning that it can shoot only one target at a time, not multiple targets at once, so faster is better.

and my personal fav:

For now, the Army will take the weapon system down to Florida’s Gulf Coast early next year, says Bauer, “to test it in rain and fog and things like that.”