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Contractor Proposes Laser Rifles for US Military

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the han-solo-shoots-first dept.

The Fryar writes "Well, folks, it looks like the future really is now! It seems the Defense Review has uncovered a submission by Stavatti, a sort of "free market" defense contractor, to the military for a laser rifle. The submission comes in response to the Army's LFLAN requirement - the quest to provide "Light Fighter Lethality After Next" technology, or lasers/phasers/sabers/advanced weapons for use some 20 years down the road. Needless to say, I also considered the category "Star Wars Prequels" for this article."

6 of 724 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm. by Omkar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Would mirrors be effective?

  2. I've always wondered... by eric2hill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Lasers can be created by several things, most commonly electricity passing through certain types of gasses. The primary problem with this design is power - we don't have a portable nuclear power pack yet, and I sure don't want to carry one around and get shot at.

    Since you can also get laser power from chemical sources, is it possible to make laser "bullets" that are basically chemical sources with an electronic trigger? Firing them from the gun passes a small trigger charge into the bullet, which lases (is that even a word?) the chemicals inside the bullet all at once - ejecting a large light pulse out the end of the gun at one time.

    The bullet is then ejected and a new one from the magazine is loaded into the chamber.

    Does anyone know how much power you can get in a short chemical laser burst like this? How large would the bullet have to be to have adequate power?

    Any chemical laser specialists out there?

    --
    LOAD "SIG",8,1
    LOADING...
    READY.
    RUN
  3. TOTALLY ILLEGIAL by cheshiremackat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The only problems with Laser weapons are that they are illegial under the Geneva conventions, as are any weapons that are designed to permanently blind a person. While it may be possible to skirt the issue by using a non-visable wavelength, targeting becomes an issue... even low power lasers for targeting would be potentially illegial as they could/would be intense enough to harm the vision, OR if they are sufficiently low power, they probably disperse so greatly as to give away the position of the 'shooter'.

    Now this is not free bait for trolling, so please do not reply with stupid comments about the U.S. not following the convention as is... this is not about Iraq or GitMo.

    _CMK

    --
    Bad spellers of the world untie!
    1. Re:TOTALLY ILLEGIAL by inteller · · Score: 3, Interesting

      you are assuming that the U.S. will adhere to any conventions in the future.

  4. Re:yeah, right by zeus_tfc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Recoil mitigation? On a Laser weapon? I don't get it, where does the recoil come from.

    Really, I don't see a need for this kind of weapon. I don't see it being as effective as our current rifles, unless this is intended as an anti-vehicular weapon as opposed to an anti-personel weapon.

    Admittedly, I don't really know anything about what the weapon will do, or what kind of testing they have done that they think this will be a viable weapon, but how much call will there be for a weapon that causes small, cauterized holes in people? Isn't that what Lasers would do, or am I mistaken?

    The only use for this I see, would be a no-recoil sniper weapon, using precise shots to the head or heart. But then there's that odd "recoil mitigation" hurdle that I still don't understand the cause of.

    I guess it comes down to the fact that there is too much we don't know about what the weapon will do.

    --
    "...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
  5. Power Source.. by dracken · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of the laser gun is Po-210. A milligram of Polonium 210 emits as much alpha radiation as 5g of radium.

    To quote LANL Polonium-210 is very dangerous to handle in even milligram or microgram amounts, and special equipment and strict control is necessary. Damage arises from the complete absorption of the energy of the alpha particle into tissue.

    The maximum permissible body burden for ingested polonium is only 0.03 microcuries, which represents a particle weighing only 6.8 x 10-12 g. Weight for weight it is about 2.5 x 1011 times as toxic as hydrocyanic acid. The maximum allowable concentration for soluble polonium compounds in air is about 2 x 10-11 microcuries/cm3.

    Also polonium 210 is very rare in nature. It is usually produced by bombarding Bismuth 209 with neutrons (typically in a nuclear reactor). In the current form, this weapon is an invitation for radioactive contamination disaster.