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Chinese Scientists Have Developed the World's First Destructive Laser Rifle (popsci.com)
PopularScience: Chinese scientists have developed the world's first destructive, man-portable laser weapon. However, there is more to the story of this cool looking, but "less than lethal" directed energy device. The laser rifle is the ZKZM-500, developed by Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics in Xian, Shaanxi. It's manufactured by the Institute's subsidiary, ZKZM Laser. Weighing at 6 pounds (about the weight of a typical assault rifle), the ZKZM-500 has a range of 2,600 feet. The ZKZM-500 uses a lithium battery with enough power for 1000 two second shots (keep in mind, those 1000 shots may not be at full power). According to Institute designers, its laser is powerful enough to instantly scar human skin and tissue. It can also ignite clothing, knock a small drone out of the sky, or even ignite a fuel tank. That would place its power output around 100-500 watts (most surgical lasers top out at 100 watts).
Wow you can predict precisely where the laser will hit and have the mirror at the ready? Or you're simply walking down the battlefield with a full dress mirror??
Mostly random stuff.
Wow, it's almost like you picked up on my sarcasm.
Mostly random stuff.
Likely you are a troll, but a laser will happily burn through a mirror. Depending on the wavelength and the makeup of the "mirror" not all that much power is needed.
The original video since the Popsci article doesn't care to provide a link:
https://www.scmp.com/video/offbeat/2153779/chinese-star-wars-laser-weapon-appears-set-fire-objects-distance
Definitely bullshit. No need to be an optic/photonics nerd to confirm. To give you an idea combat lasers are used today to burn the optics of incoming missiles. And in an experimental setting to boot. Beyond this they are hugely impractical. You also need a huge amount of energy which means a strong electrical generator and a vehicle. There are experiments now to make them work on warships as self defense mechanisms.
So basically news that pretend anyone has made the electrical output of a several thousand of tonnes warship in a man portable outfit are good for teenage rumor sites or clumsy state propaganda agencies like presstv. i wonder how such crud ends up on slashdot.
There are lasers that cut trough steel at impressive speed though. Industrial infrared lasers in big factories. Sometimes powerful waterjets are used to the same effect. But if someone tells you a water pistol can cut people in two, be sceptical.
Besides, i am also a photonics nerd. Not in such high powered application though.
If the US were to steal the designs and market them to the rest of the world?
Fortunately laser rifles are exceptionally effective against straw men.
All it takes to thwart any laser based weaponry is to come covered in something that reflects and scatters light well.
Try moving around on a sunny day in reflective gear to see how well that works on a battlefield.
There is no independent confirmation of the existence of this rifle. Absolutely none.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Just imagine how fabulous the soldiers will be, covered in sequins.
Ignite clothing, cause scars, burn and char flesh, instantly permanently blind eyes, and so on, and so forth.
This weapon is much worse than simple killing; I'd say it's a complete flouting of the rules of war. Nice job making it, scientists, but much like the atom bomb, now we have a lasting problem on our hands.
I've seen enough Sci-Fi to know that laser guns are completely inaccurate in the hands of the bad guys- so we needed worry... ... unless we are the bad guys.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Perhaps we are all missing the true end use for these lasers.
Maybe their intended use is to blind night vision devices and infrared cameras.
I read that the Chinese were using lasers to prevent pilots from getting near their bases and the island that they built in the South China Sea.
Perhaps this is an extension of that use.
That's also the opposite of stealth, so your gear would have the choice of being hard to track for guided weapons or hard to destroy with a laser, but not both. We rarely arm our soldiers or equipment with only one weapon system...
Indeed. And even blinding soldiers is out as they will just wear laser googles. The only useful application of this weapon is to maim civilians.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
No we wouldn't. Because we understand Physics. It has nothing to do with China. Look at those EmDrive idiots: all Americans. It has nothing to do with your country or race. You should grow up.
FTA: "The ZKZM-500 has plenty of Chinese predecessors in directed energy weapons. Chinese police and soldiers have long been equipped with 'dazzler' laser rifles. These include PY132A, WGJ-2002 and BBQ-905, which are designed to target the optical imagers and sensors on enemy vehicles, aircraft and drones (since China's signed the United Nations Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which bans the use of laser weapons that cause permanent damage to human eyes)."
- The laser module - sure it exists but it is going to be big and need water cooling if it's going to be of any use
- The weight - the module itself for a 500W laser comes in ~5kg. Even if they somehow got the module to fit in the 6kg they claim it weighs, the batteries and watercooling will pack on an additional 6-10kg.
- The power requirements ~0.3 kWh (not accounting for losses from water cooling and other gear), that requires a small motorcycle battery, even if made from Lithium, not something you easily carry around in a 6kg package.
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1955??? In a backpack? The first operational laser was in 1960 in a lab.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/...
Yes, but time travel was invented in 2045.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
No you blithering idiot, it's because they would have to make multiple generational leaps in several separate parts of laser technology in order to be able to get the performance they're claiming.
Probably risky - if the burning outer layer deposits soot on the mirror, then the laser will heat it rather than being reflected. Doesn't take much heating to disrupt a reflective layer.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
All it takes to thwart any laser based weaponry is to come covered in something that reflects and scatters light well. The effect of a laser weapon is based upon absorption of the light. Technically if you know what kind of laser it is, the color of your clothing might already be enough.
Only if there's no dust in your clothing, and it is exactly, precisely the same color as the laser, and it is only that color. And if the color is a coating, not molded in, because then the laser will strip away everything but the pigment.
It's a cute sci-fi trope, but the idea that wearing clothing of the correct color is a meaningful defense against a laser weapon is totally incorrect. If you just have a little contamination on a mirror, a laser will destroy it. You think you're going to get clothes to do the job? If that did make any sense, you'd want to wear fully white clothing, because that would reflect all visible frequencies. A flat white surface actually reflects more light than an ordinary mirror, because the light doesn't have to pass through the glass twice before you see it. But it still reflects less than 90% of the light, which means that as long as the remaining 10% is sufficient to discolor the garment, that 90% is going to go downhill rapidly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That's why these people made a laser rifle. The rifling causes the photons to have a twisting polarity, which allows them to drill through reflective surfaces.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
You can have my Laser Rifle when you can pry it from my cold dead hands!
Smoke does work very well for that. Common in sci-fi is a type of smoke grenade to specifically mess with lasers, but that might not be totally fictional anymore. One of the old things I saw listed on a Darpa list of tech they were wanting to look into was something like that. It was a long time ago, so maybe somebody has already created one that works better than the usual smoke grenade when it comes to blocking lasers.
The US have heavily tested laser weapons already and for the most part they aren't practical compared to conventional weapons in most cases. This is one of those cool Sci-Fi ideas that doesn't pan out. The problem is most lasers aren't very efficient and the ones that are (chemical lasers) use stuff so nasty they'd be deadly to the soldier carrying it if it burst or broke. Not to mention rain or dust or hazy day would reduce its effectiveness. It's probably a concept weapon that can give you a burn or blind but compare that to oh getting hit by a 50 cal round which would blow parts off you. It's likely a test concept weapon for experimenting but I highly doubt it'll ever come into widespread use.
Military units around the world are already equipped with a decent laser defence mechanism. It's called a smoke grenade. It even comes in bigger sizes, from mortars all the way up to the bigger cannons. The US army at least now has smoke screen rounds engineered to also block out IR so as to defeat thermal and IR sighting systems. (and therefore would also be a good defence against IR up through the visual range laser wavelengths.)
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