Laser Gun!

[Mr. Analog]

DO NOT point this at your eyes:
http://hackaday.com/2011/03/10/youll-shoot-your-eye-out-with-a-1mw-laser-pulse-pistol/

[Stewie521]

AHA! I knew that if you had a strong enough laser, and a lens, you could shoot through plastic!

[Mr. Analog]

AHA! I knew that if you had a strong enough laser, and a lens, you could shoot through plastic!

The US military has been playing around with high-energy lasers, focused microwave emitters and masers for some time now. I remember reading about a prototype that was capable of hitting a ground target and doing damage.

The interesting bit here is this guy built it himself... at home... and made it look awesome!

[Stewie521]

The interesting bit here is this guy built it himself... at home... and made it look awesome!

Yup, add a few blade-like attachments at an angle on the bottom, and you got yourself a almost exact replica of an Halo Spiker gun (I believe it's called)

The US military has been playing around with high-energy lasers, focused microwave emitters and masers for some time now. I remember reading about a prototype that was capable of hitting a ground target and doing damage.

Well, now we know why their military budget was in the billions!

[Mr. Analog]

Well, now we know why their military budget was in the billions! trillions

FTFY haha

The ops cost for just one aircraft carrier (a largely irrelevant piece of hardware since the early 60s) is in the billions.

Funny thing, prior to WWII the USA was opposed to maintaining a large standing army. Dwight D. Eisenhower nailed it with part of his farewell address regarding the proliferation of the Military-Industrial Complex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8GFswburko

As someone who grew up in the shadow of MAD and now this time of "continual terror-alertness" I can tell you fear has conquered the Western world and made more than a few greedy people rich. It's rather chilling to think about actually...

[Darren Dirt]

fear has conquered the Western world

I blame Shannen Doherty.

It's rather chilling to think about actually...

as is her lazy eye.

[Mr. Analog]

fear has conquered the Western world

I blame Shannen Doherty.

It's rather chilling to think about actually...

as is her lazy eye.

ROFL

[Mr. Analog]

NASA wants to zap space junk with a ground based laser:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26512/

[Stewie521]

NASA wants to zap space junk with a ground based laser:

Interesting, though, too bad the USA would rather blow things up instead, rather than resorting to a new technology...

[Mr. Analog]

Well sending the army to fight terrorists is sorta like swatting flies with a Buick...

[Stewie521]

Well sending the army to fight terrorists is sorta like swatting flies with a Buick...

ROFL!

[Mr. Analog]

Well sending the army to fight terrorists is sorta like swatting flies with a Buick...

ROFL!

I know eh!

It's like they don't even know why they have covert ops guys, seriously, some terrorist cell somewhere just disappears one day, that's way scarier to the terrorists than having marines knocking on doors in some random village that doesn't even have plumbing...

[Darren Dirt]

seems this is the best "related" topic already in the forum.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FrickinLaserBeams#RealLife

YOWZA there's quite a lot of "real life" developments in this field.

But what I found really fascinating was...

Solid state combat lasers are on their way; these can be mounted anywhere with enough power available. And if/when they become widely available on the battlefield . . . it will never be the same again. Combat aircraft will be driven out of the lower atmosphere, artillery will become almost useless (without firing hundreds of shells at the batteries just to get a few through), and missiles will become much, much less effective.

see also: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WaveMotionGun#RealLife

and of course the "super trope" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RayGun



heck, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has an entire section of its website dedicated to laser tech! and when LLNL is working on something cool/scary/uberdangerous, you know it's gonna be a reality soon (if it's not already)



but even more scary/dangerous: the numerous "hurt-the-bad-guys-or-dissidents" research + development in RL that are INVISIBLE tech:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AgonyBeam#RealLife
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsed_Energy_Projectile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_control#Research

[Mr. Analog]

Right now there is ongoing development of anti-missile laser tech that would replace the current Phalanx system (or systems like it) on navy ships.

I guess thousands of rounds are kind of expensive for one missile when lasers could do the job.

It kind of makes sense, the only trouble is being able to generate the power needed quickly without resorting to huge banks of water-unfriendly capacitors

Of course they could adapt the cool laser technology that enhanced so many school pictures from the 80s (did anyone ever pick the "books" background?)