Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Progress Toward a Weaponized Laser

The UK Daily Mail compares it to a light saber from Star Wars, but it's far closer to the laser guns of science fiction than it is to a sword.



You'd still need much more power to make this a lethal weapon to compare with a firearm. Doubtless you could blind someone with it or burn a hole through them if they held still for it, but it's not a Star Trek phaser or a Star Wars blaster by any stretch of the imagination. Yet.

3 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

It's a start. While in the Navy (early '70s), the Navy's Arctic Research Labs proposed a ship-mounted laser. Had to be on a carrier, they said, because it would require a nuclear reactor to power it.

Handheld does seem quite a few steps nearer the goal.

Old NFO said...

Yet being the key word...

Siege said...

I look forward to my lasgun. Even if it's not as capable as an old fashioned slugthrower, it's hard to beat magazines that can be recharged by leaving them in the window. The trick to building this into a laser rifle would be to use a bank of the diodes right near each other, and a capacitor to give one big pulse of energy, rather than a continuous beam.

Whether it's useful or not as a defensive arm, I want my laser rifle, because laser rifle.