Air Force Research Lab’s Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., in concert with Boeing, has demonstrated that a dual-mirror system can redirect a laser to a target, extending the laser’s range. Using a prototype called the Aerospace Relay Mirror System, researchers successfully tested a non-lethal laser beam by firing it a one of two mirrors from several miles away and then using the second mirror to relay the beam to a ground-based target another two miles away. In this test, a crane hoisted the two mirrors up about 100 feet. In a real application, a high-altitude airship could loft the mirrors to some 70,000 feet, where there would be little atmospheric turbulence to affect beam quality.
The top Air Force commander on on the Japanese island of Okinawa has clamped down alcohol and issued a curfew for junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians at Kadena Air Base for the next month. The order came roughly two weeks after a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly robbing and…