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2019-06-24 Science & Technology
The Marines Have a Laser Now
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Posted by Skidmark 2019-06-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top

#1 *Yawn* That's nice... Have they solved the two big problems yet? (1) Keeping the waste heat generated from melting the laser quickly into slag? and (2) Generating enough portable power to actually damage something( a long power cable to a hydroelectric dam doesn't qualify)?

Still it's closer to the 21st Century I have been waiting for...
Posted by magpie 2019-06-24 01:19||   2019-06-24 01:19|| Front Page Top

#2 I think the military has laser weapons which generate little waste heat.

Key is the strength. Your typical laser pointer used in power point talks has less than 1% of a Watt. To cut through a steel shell of, say 1/4 inch it takes, say 400 W depending on the tightness of the beam. That doesn't seem impossible in a hand held weapon.

I don't really understand how targeting a moving object would work with something like in the image.
Posted by lord garth 2019-06-24 01:52||   2019-06-24 01:52|| Front Page Top

#3 Yawn! I'm still waiting for the plasma rifle in the 25 kilowatt range.
Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839 2019-06-24 06:06||   2019-06-24 06:06|| Front Page Top

#4 What if the target has a giant mirror?
Posted by jpal 2019-06-24 07:49||   2019-06-24 07:49|| Front Page Top

#5 I don't really understand how targeting a moving object would work with something like in the image.

Kalman Filtering
Posted by Skidmark 2019-06-24 08:58||   2019-06-24 08:58|| Front Page Top

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