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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
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.
Just imagine how fabulous the soldiers will be, covered in sequins.
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.
- 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
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
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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