Royal Navy Deployed Laser Weapons During the Falklands War

Zothecula writes "Despite recent demonstrations by the US Navy, we still think of laser weapons as being things of the future. However, previously-classified British documents prove that not only were the major powers working on laser weapons in the 1970s and 80s, but that they were already being deployed with combat units in war zones. A letter from the Ministry of Defence released under the 30-year rule reveals that laser weapons were deployed on Royal Navy ships during the Falklands War in 1982, and that the British government was concerned about similar weapons being developed behind the Iron Curtain."

Re:Yes, but...

[TechyImmigrant]

the only Argentinian I've discussed this with (I'm British BTW) said he'd never heard of the Falklands or the Malvinas until the miltary government decided to start a war over them. Ditto me in the UK. The populace in neither country knew or cared.

Re:Yes, but...

[93 Escort Wagon]

That's funny. I'm American, and I'd heard of the Falklands prior to the war. We had been told, in a physics class, about the first battle of the Falklands and how the British had to correct for Southern Hemisphere coriolis effects manually by scratching new lines into their sights (which only had northern hemisphere corrections).

The other funny thing is - that story may not even be true! There are no good historical references to this; plus it's not like the British in WWI were exactly strangers to the seas below the equator... But in any case I already knew where the Falklands were located as the rhetoric heated up.

Re:Yes, but...

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

Well, both the the British and Argentinian populations can be distracted through either football or war, and both Thatcher and Galtieri had already exploited football enough, so it was war they required.

Not new nor classified

[post_toastie]

If you played the 'Harpoon' paper and pencil naval wargame in the late 80s, early 90s - not the later computer game that was based on the board game - this system was available to British ships in the Falkland Island scenarios. Given that the rules for the game were based on openly published data, I don't see how this is really 'news' to anyone. A quick search shows that there are references to this system in other publications in the 90s as well. The game effect was to cause planes at low altitude to break off their attack. For planes at very low altitude, namely Argentine pilots trying to fly below the engagement altitude of British SAMs, there was a percentage chance the plane would crash into the water.