A serious factual discussion about directed energy weapons

For what purpose?

Unless the details of this laser are obscured somehow, if its either being reported more or less powerful than it is, it will not be able to beat a simple explosive 30mm shell. The article says it managed to 'burn a hole in a pickup truck'. Completely worthless. This is worthless against vehicles, against international law to use on soldiers, and realistically lasers can be countered easily. I forget the exact name of the material (aerogel? silica aerogel? I don't know) but a centimeter will stop even the nuclear-powered naval lasers dead. They don't have the benefit of complete pinpoint accuracy like they would in vacuum, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this has half the effective range of a 30mm vulcan. This is an interesting development, sure, and in fifty years lasers, liquid propellant, railguns, maybe even plasma based weaponry will be far more useful thanks to some futuristic power capacity or generation, but right now it's just a waste of resources. I think the article also inadvertently said what I just said with 'it's a proof of concept' too, anyways.

Kentucky Fried Kebabs.

Imagine the COIN/CT possibilities. When you have a plane kilometers away, and it can burn people to death, set cars on fire, detonate ammo dumps, etc.

The PsyOp potential is YUGE! As it will take a while for them to figure out it is an infidel laser weapon, and not the fire of allah.

>>34058671
they aren't that stupid. hadjis know the us has advance weapons

>>34058485
It's going to be primarily and anti missile weapon and perhaps be pressed into service to destroy enemy ammo and fuel caches.

maybe in a hundred years they will start using it as antipersonnel and dice up insurgents.

>>34058692
but Mehemet just bursting into flames?

you can't explain that.

>>34058710
This. Why risk richochets, fragments and potential misses hitting bystanders from a burst of 30mm when you can just carve a neat line in the sand where the target is and have people be pin point accurately popped like a hotdog in the microwave too long.

>>34058647
The "burn a hole in a truck" laser was eight years ago. I'd say more realistically that it's an indirect continuation of the airborne anti-missile laser program that was mentioned in the article.

>>34058671
>cannot do any of what you described

there are no possibilities

>>34058714
It's not so much flames as the liquids in his body instantly boiling and bursting.

It ain't going to be like star wars with minor black burn marks where people get hit.

>>34058671
not so much fried as it is microwaved.

>>34058671
>>34058768

OP said "serious factual discussion", not scientifically impossible bullshit

>>34058714
>arabs can't read about lasers in the news
its literally in the fucking new that the us is trying to get lasers.

>>34058647
The reason directed energy weapons are so attractive is that they simplify logistics by using onboard fuel as "ammunition" and have effectively zero travel time allowing interdiction of anything that sensors can detect.
Countermeasures for directed energy are both easy and hard. It's easy to create a reflective surface but it has to be reflective on the correct wavelength and have a reflection rate high enough that the absorbed energy doesn't weaken or damage the surface.
There are several wavelengths that travel practically uninterrupted through air allowing ranges mainly limited by the curvature of the earth and capability of the lensing.
There are also clever things you can do with pulsing and using multiple lasers to "clear the path" for the weapon laser by utilizing a weaker laser before it. Because the air heated by the first weaker laser is hotter than the surrounding air light traveling along this hotter air is reflected by the hot/cold air boundary making the beam self-focusing.

Point is that there are a lot of really smart people doing really interesting things to make lasers work.

>>34058485

Seems like a natural platform to go with. Might as well upgrade the gunships with some pewpew.

File: thanks.jpg (27KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 500x375px

>>34058882
That's actually really neat and the entire purpose of this makes a lot more sense now. Thanks random anon, I learned a new thing today.

>>34058818
I've seen laser burns...it's not pretty shit.

>>34058647
It is against international law to use a laser to blind enemy combatants. Not so much to use it to end the threat of enemy combatants.

There probably will be some kind of convention adopting laws about the use of directed energy. But it will probably go the way of the 50 caliber BMG being designated a "anti-material" weapon but be used to "disable" enemy small arms....

>>34058882
>>34058893
I don't know about all that. Seems interesting, which is why I brought it up. Also, the fact that the article says "within the next year" is what really got my attention. That seemed awfully soon to me, considering all the teething problems laser weapon systems have had.

>Fuckoff huge YAL-1 was useless

>Thinking a a C-130 with a laser strapped on will be any better

>>34058485
USSOCOM wants a lot of shit, doesn't mean they'll get any of it. Just look at SURG for an example of their pie-in-the-sky requirements.

>>34059604
>But it will probably go the way of the 50 caliber BMG being designated a "anti-material" weapon but be used to "disable" enemy small arms....

That is an old sergeants tale. there is no rule against using .50bmg directly on people to kill them.

>>34059633
YAL-1 was a test mule and a proof of concept.

solid state free electron lasers have gotten much more powerful and smaller, compared to the chemical laser on the YAL-1.

the navy has a laser weapon deployed on an active ship right now.

>>34058647
>liquid propellant
no

>>34058647
They want it specifically so that they can do things like destroy IEDs / VBIEDs, disable vehicles (they burnt a hole through a truck and burned into the engine block, destroying it in a few seconds from IIRC 4 miles away - not far, but this is meant for counter-insurgency work), destroying weapons caches, etc.

>>34058867
>Arabs
>Read

>>34058742
>Why risk richochets, fragments and potential misses hitting bystanders from a burst of 30mm when you can just carve a neat line in the sand where the target is
Lol thats not how a laser works.

>>34058485
>A serious factual discussion about /v/ related topic
>>>/v/

>>34063092
Not him but aren't lasers more accurate than a burst of 30mm?

>>34063106
Do you have brain damage

>>34063124
No, I'm not a laserfag.

>>34063062
most of your foreign fighter variety of muslim insurgent is decently educated by western standards.

the illiterate goat fuckers are only found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Africa.

I can't wait for Hadji to go running to the UN and whine about big evil murrika using unfair and despicable weapons in war, similar to how ther germans whines when the US used shotguns for trench clearing in WW1

>>34063146
Damn that's a lot of typos. Learn from me and always check your spelling when phoneposting, people.

>>34058485
>>34058647
Best use of laser is blinding weapons for sensors and eyes.

>inb4 laws of war
Just use loopholes.