Plasma Laser: UFO Maker?

Military researchers are today working on a way to defend soldiers with ultra-quick laser pulses and mid-air plasma bursts. But similar technology may have been floating around the Defense Department for years -- and could even be the source of a few UFO scares.

Some years ago, Justin Mullins at New Scientist reported rumors of an 1980’s Air Force project which created plasma balls with lasers:

Researchers working with high-power laser weapons discovered that they could create a glowing ball of fire in the sky by crossing the beams of two powerful infrared lasers…By moving the laser beams around the sky, the researchers found they could shift the plasma ball back and forth at very high speed…. At night, they demonstrated their skills, flying their glowing creations in formation high above the cold desert.

The plasma balls do not seem to have had any direct military use. But there was a suggestion that they might be adapted as a psychological warfare tool. The hissing sound produced by the plasma could be modulated to carry a blurred but understandable signal - a talking fireball. The a device was nicknamed "Voice Of God"; apparently a proposal to use it in the 1991 Gulf War was not accepted. ("It sounds like a project that didn't have the benefit of adult supervision," remarked John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org)

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