In my opinion, the video is very clear. Nearby sodium lighting experienced a surge of power at nearly the same time as the Guidestones exploded into pieces, indicating a powerful electric field in the area.
There was no orange flash indicating high explosives and no saboteurs were caught on camera.
A lightning strike can be ruled out because there was none in the area at the time of the strike. Even if it was lightning, the time of the strike, 4:03.33, is a message only capable of being delivered by a DEW, which travel at 186,000 miles per second.
If it is known that this was a DEW strike, that would mean the US Military is responsible. They are the only ones with the available technology and control of Theater.
I had strong suspicions about the strike on the George Floyd mural for similar reasons.
I believe the fruits of POTUS45's formation of Space Force are now being realized.
Optics/photonics systems engineer with some materials knowledge, here.
Curious to know: What aspects did you design & in what area of the spectrum? And were the systems primarily ground, ship, air, or space-based? (Asking only if you can disclose, of course.)
I ask because I disagree with you & think DEW is possible, but my reasons are primarily based in theory as opposed to direct application.
If your expertise is primarily in one focus area or part of the spectrum, then there’s likely a lot more options to be explored & I’d say the jury is still out, haha.
Look up YAL-1A for the biggest one I worked on. All laser weapons are in shortwave infrared, 1-10 microns, for reasons of efficiency and effectiveness. Ground and ship weapons at 100 kW levels are in trials. Megawatt-class weapons have come and gone, thanks to President Obama. (I also did optical engineering before I moved to weapons.)
It's not possible for operational reasons. Nobody is going to take a mobile laser weapon for a joyride to try and conduct lethality experiments against slabs of stone. There is no reason to think that the observed effects would be possible (part of my job was target effects analysis).
Lasers are impeded by clouds, smoke, dust, and shrubbery. They are also clear-weather systems generally designed to seek and engage heat signatures. I've worked DEWs since the late 1970s. There are no other options within that category.
Thanks for this.
Coincidentally, I’m also studying IR, but I’m still new and haven’t been able to do as much background research as I would like. I’m also interested in several other areas (some totally unrelated), so my knowledge base is more spread & less concentrated. Thus, my experience (and the fact that a lot of this sort of research is under some sort of clearance to which I don’t currently have access) limits me with respect to what has or hasn’t already been done. I could learn & benefit a lot from asking you about your experience if you don’t mind me asking. Can I DM you to ask more specific questions?
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So far, I’m aware of degraded environment limits & the ship laser experiments, as I was able to study that much background at least. I know a couple people who are actively exploring getting around atmospheric degradation & deeper penetration of atmosphere, water, and earth. This was a while ago, so I don’t think it’s impossible, but I haven’t had the chance to keep up with specifics. I thought about a low-flying plane or drone with a DEW: I think that could be more plausible since the distance could be greatly decreased resulting in less beam spread. And I checked the weather—The conditions were ideal in that area that day, so there’s that. While there can be issues coordinating with a moving plane & target, an immobile target seems to ease things greatly. Some of my study has been in target identification, and there have been several advances in AI to make this significantly easier, too. But if not air/space, I also considered a land-based vehicle under cover of night with a clear view—The stones are in an open field with lots of farmland surrounding & few trees, so I would suspect shrubbery is less of an issue.
I don’t see why it’s not operationally possible for a military that has so many resources (albeit, not unlimited), and I don’t see, based on my knowledge of chemistry, rocks/minerals, and simple granite laser lithography research papers, why the effects we saw wouldn’t be possible… Can’t be too hard to buy a granite rock, ship it to base, and zap it with your in-house experimental weapon a bunch of times to see what happens, then follow it up with field tests if it shows promise. You might not even need a large scale experiment to create something that is effective.
I apologize if I seem to be harping on about this and am annoying you with it. I am naturally a thorough person who likes to explore every possibility down to the last detail, and I happen to be stubborn enough to see it through… (Especially if it something doesn’t seem to match my intuition based on my perspective of the bigger picture.) I suppose my thinking out loud like this is my version of creative thought experiments. Maybe it’s just my lack of experience, or maybe I’m just a stubborn, nit-picky optimist, but it still seems like there’s possibility there to me.
Regardless, I really appreciate your feedback.
Yoicks! Well, thank you for the kind respect. Somewhat rare in this environment.
Let me see if I can be helpful in this environment. I don't know of any DM feature in this page and I have scruples about dropping my pseudonym.
Just to set the stage, it seems pretty clear that the stones were damaged by an explosive charge placed by a person unknown but caught on video. That is the obvious and expectable explanation, completely consistent with the video of the blast. No need to pursue any other.
But you have to realize that laser weapons (DEW entails other categories, but only lasers have been brought to a point of utility) are expensive, not commonly available, and exist at the test and trial level today. They are classified and under tight access control. You can see where I am going. There is no way that such technology will be allowed to participate in a stupid and illegal fraternity prank. It is out of the question. Anyone who imagines otherwise has no idea of how classified programs are pursued, how the military operates, or why illegal acts are beyond the pale.
But to get back to laser weapons. Early it was determined there were two basic categories: pulsed weapons and continuous-wave (CW) weapons. The pulsed weapon stores up all its lethal energy to be released in a single pulse of electromagnetic radiation that lasts maybe milliseconds or microseconds. The target surface ablation can result in kinetic effects, like pressure, as well as heat deposition. But the research rather quickly determined that there was a lot of effort to make the pulses, and the target effects were not easily predictable or impressive. So, research bent toward the CW laser, whose effect is like a blowtorch (heat deposition) spread over several seconds of dwelling on a target aimpoint. Easy enough to attain the melting temperature of most common aerospace metals. This is what current weapons are.
Hypothetically, the stones could have been a good target...if the air was clear, there were no density ripples (convection), and the target effects were well understood and predicted, and the beam sightline did not have to move out of alignment with the target aimpoint. I'm not so sure the actual event (explosion from behind) would have been consistent with the only available sightline (from the front). But there is no point in elaborating that hypothesis, since it has been found to be otherwise.
As for target effects, you have to approach it scientifically. Given what you know, what effects would ensue? You can't wave your arms and say "why wouldn't it be possible?" You have to establish that it would be possible. I have seen a benchtop CO2 laser raise a hot spot on a piece of firebrick that went white-hot, probably for a beam intensity of 10 watts/cm2. The equilibrium intensity of molten aluminum is about 1.4 W/m2. Titanium is a bit higher. But the brick was not affected. When the beam was turned off, the glow dimmed and the brick went back to its previous condition. Why would I think that a dressed stone would be any different? A hot spot might provoke cracks if the stone had a high coefficient of thermal expansion, but did it? And how high is high enough, given that firebrick was immune?
There are other aspects to a laser engagement. One of them is the likelihood of stray scorch marks on other parts of the target or surroundings. The beam does not go into a single spot. Diffraction effects will cause some of the beam to be distributed in "rings" around the main beam. At high centerline intensity, these rings can also cause significant damage. (I think I once squelched an ambitious project by pointing this fact out.)
Why do we build laser weapons? To engage high-speed targets, mainly, because nothing is faster than the speed of light. And if something is coming at you, you want to deal with it as soon as possible. Or maneuvering targets, for much the same reason (thus, boosting missiles). Engaging static blocks of stone is not even on the list. Setting things on fire is maybe on the list, but it is usually a frivolous addition. Like burning down a forest with artillery firing incendiary shells. A waste of an asset that has more important uses.
I hope that is helpful. It is probably not a complete answer, but I wanted to give you the Big Picture first.
Is it just me who finds it odd that people who design direct energy weapons spend their spare time posting here? I mean, that's cool and everything but I would picture you guys solving complex equations on a whiteboard in your living rooms in your off time. Maybe I've seen too many movies.
I've done that at work for 40 years. Time off for good behavior. Long ago, I established the principle that work stays at work and have seldom budged from it. That's just by way of keeping my sanity. My colleagues also had families and lives. But I do perform the occasional mathematical derivation for personal amusement. (Bee in bonnet syndrome.)