It seems that the US Air Force is all worked up about the benefits of putting giant laser beams on aircraft. A PowerPoint presenation, given by the Cynthia Kaiser, chief engineer of the USAF to the New Mexico Optics Industry Association, outlines many of the supposedly desirable and good things about warplanes with lasers on them. You can download the entire presentation here. Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts from the presentation:

• Laser-planes bring a "Surprise element for enemy confusion" (i.e "Oh my god, we are melting! Argh! How did that happen!" -- might say the enemy combantant.)
• According to slide 9: heading "Economic Realities" [of building lasers], sub-heading "Unleash the POWER of DIRECTED ENERGY", making factories that will build lasers for planes leads to a great deal of positive economic spin-offs, such as: "Capital, Educatation, [and] Quality of Life/ Creative Population[s]"
• Another great thing about lasers? "Plausible deniability" (i.e "What? We didn't melt your embassay! It was the one-armed man!")

Trying to stay on schedule for the Great Laser War of 2014, it seems like the USAF has been making progress with their Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) program, which teams up a chlroine and hydrogen peroxide laser on to a Hercules airplane. The system was succesfully tested earlier this summer, and a second test of a larger ATL is in the preperation stages.

But besides the listed bonuses above, the obivous premise behind putting big lasers on planes is that they will make the world a happier and safer place. Hurray! 

My personal favorite part of the slideshow? On slide 13 -- the "Economic Impact of Kirtland AFB" one of the benefits of building the laser factories is the "Mentoring and support of educational activies" -- yes, they spelt activities wrong. That's there is some real examples of edumacation, nicely done! Then again, maybe it was some sort of inside joke, and all the laser-builders laughed.