The air force's autonomous space plane launches for third test flight

[strawman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20680253

The X-37B, which is essentially a robotic mini shuttle, 1/4 the size of the now retired space shuttles, is largely secret (at least in the details) but has been launched a for another test, and is presumably working quite well.

Nifty. Now we just need to mount laser weapons on it and we can RULE KNOWN SPACE.

Also, they need to finish that warp drive thingy.

 

[AshburnerX]

Actually, there is an excellent chance they'd just load Kinetic rods into it and just launch those instead of a laser. Google "Rods from God" for more details.

 

[strawman]

They really only need the intelligence of an average video camera to add guidance to the rods for pinpoint accuracy. But yes, kinetic energy weapons are a great option for space to earth applications due to all the weight going up is going into the warhead.

 

[GasBandit]

We will throw rocks at them, Manny.