r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • Feb 04 '25

Energy US Navy’s Burke-Class Destroyer Unleashes HELIOS Laser in Breathtaking New Photo

https://thedefensepost.com/2025/02/04/us-navy-helios-laser/
2.1k Upvotes

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782

u/Granum22 Feb 04 '25

"The HELIOS (High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance) "

There's a backronym if I ever saw one.

350

u/watduhdamhell Feb 04 '25

The military loves them. Almost every device is named in that way to make the thing easier to talk about. Basically the acronym never actually leaves the wiki page in practice. They just need a say-able one word "name" and then that's what it is forever.

156

u/RuTsui Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

DAGR (pronounced dagger): Defense Advanced G(PS) Receiver

Dagger, not dag-pis-er

LAW: Lubricating Oil, Weapon

FIST: FIre Support Team

These soldiers (13F) are referred to as Fisters

PEQ-15 (pronounced peck): Portable Laser(?!) Combined(?!)

MAGIC CARPET: Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies

107

u/ManMoth222 Feb 04 '25

Yeah but ATACMs are the most direct

79

u/trapperberry Feb 04 '25

Is it pronounced “attack ‘em”?

43

u/ManMoth222 Feb 04 '25

Unless it's being read by an AI, yes

16

u/mrpoopsocks Feb 04 '25

I always heard it as At-Cams.

21

u/RuTsui Feb 04 '25

Well whoever you heard that from is missing out on the opportunity to go “Target removed from no-fire list? ATTACK EM!”

2

u/dalvean88 Feb 06 '25

attack Mfkrs!

9

u/PlatoPirate_01 Feb 04 '25

At-at or A-T, A-T?

6

u/taichi22 Feb 04 '25

I used to think of them as at-uh-cams, but I’ve since switched over to attack-em’s.

1

u/outlawsix Feb 05 '25

Never heard that, i've only ever heard it as "attack 'ems"

7

u/arand0md00d Feb 05 '25

Merry attackmas is better

13

u/Ishidan01 Feb 04 '25

I mean the other option is ending off with shit like APFSDSDU, which sounds like a sneeze that sets off a shart.

3

u/skater15153 Feb 05 '25

I mean that still might have the enemy running

2

u/curiouslyendearing Feb 06 '25

The alternative is we end up with yet another M-1 something like we used to. Half the equipment we used in WW2 is m-1 something or other. We used to suck at naming

2

u/TheDirgeCaster Feb 05 '25

Its such a bad one because half of the acronym is just the word tactial

23

u/watduhdamhell Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

Personally my favorite was always

SHOULDER LAUNCHED MULTI PURPOSE ASSAULT WEAPON, DISPOSABLE.

Aka the SMAW-D. Which of course spawned dick jokes to no end. "And it ain't small... Motion of the ocean/rocket motor and all that!"

3

u/Tiancius Feb 05 '25

LAW also works for light anti-tank weapon. Case in point, the A seems to stand for anti-tank, anti-armor, or assault. Doesn't matter, it's a LAW.

3

u/Reniconix Feb 05 '25

PEQ isn't an acronym, it's a mission code. L was already taken, so Laser has to be E for "energy", and Q is "special" which is basically "misc".

See also the WSC-#: Waterborne Special two-way Communications (satellite radios on ships/subs).

2

u/Vegetable-Board-5547 Feb 05 '25

ALICE pack, bby

1

u/RuTsui Feb 05 '25

And her sister MOLLE (pronounced molly).

I don’t remember what ALICE stands for, but MOLLE is something like MOdular Light-weight Load-bearing Equipment

2

u/Vegetable-Board-5547 Feb 05 '25

And a full S.A.L.U.T.E. report, ha ha

2

u/Flush_Foot Feb 04 '25

Portable Energized Quanta ? 🤷🏻‍♂️

2

u/Woodybones Feb 05 '25

Don’t forget the PRC-E6. Every unit has at least one.

3

u/Reniconix Feb 05 '25

Hey, I resemble that comment.

We in the Navy generally have PRC-E7s, though, we get the new gear and the Marines gotta get the hand me downs.

1

u/confusedham Feb 06 '25

Same as equipment naming

SLQ-25 slick 25 SPQ-9 spook 9 SPY is just Spy...

I love the NATO naming conventions for chinese sensors and Comms though like

Chrome dome Squid loop Fish pot Slant eye Rice pan Frog knob

I'm just making those up but either correct names or basically the same.

1

u/counterfitster Feb 06 '25

Those are similar to all the names they've come up with for Russian equipment.

1

u/skallanc Feb 07 '25

JEEP: General Purpose

3

u/MudWallHoller Feb 04 '25

The rule of cool is upheld in the military for sure lol.

1

u/MudWallHoller Feb 04 '25

Until it isn't...

7

u/I-Make-Maps91 Feb 04 '25

They learned their lesson when we had 4 distinct MXs in production that weren't in any way related.

1

u/ytman Feb 05 '25

Marketing. Industrial Conplex