Laser Signals for Airspace Breaches

It looks as if the government is about to start to us lasers to alert planes they have entered restricted airspace, according to the Washington Post yesterday.

Photo Credit: junious

Lasers To Signal Airspace Breaches
The U.S. military will begin using an elaborate network of cameras and lasers next month to scan the sky over Washington and flash colored warning beams at aircraft that enter the nation's most restricted metropolitan airspace.

About a dozen high-powered cameras at unidentified locations will be able to zoom in on an airplane anywhere in the restricted airspace, which covers a 30 mile radius around each of the Washington area's three major airports. Red and green laser beams attached to the cameras will then warn the aircraft to leave the area.

This set off some warning bells in my head. Isn't this what happened to some airplanes coming in for landingsaround the country?( See: Man Indicted In Airplane Laser Incident) And while they accert that it is not harmful.

Photo Credit: wellerpics

Unlike pointers

and other eye-damaging lasers that have raised safety concerns among pilots, the military's beams are low-intensity and safe enough for the eyes yet distinctive enough to alert pilots that something's wrong, officials say. From government building rooftops, the lasers will pinpoint an aircraft from 20 miles away and flash a quick red-red-green sequence repeatedly. The cameras will be overseen by NORAD officials from multiple locations, including Colorado Springs; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and the Washington area. NORAD operators will activate the laser beams if a pilot does not respond to radio contact or an aircraft intercept. more...

I don't think that this "Safe low level laser" is all that it'll do. It would be easy to have it on a gradated power scale, so if the pilot didn't respond to the warning flashes then they would simply up the power and do damage to the flight crew or the aircraft. thus neutralizing the threat.