4 ms·
I think lasers are going to be the biggest flop. There was big talk about them from the 90s till now. However they only seem to be able to be used for disrupti
by mothsonasloth 7y ago
I think lasers are going to be the biggest flop. There was big talk about them from the 90s till now.
However they only seem to be able to be used for disruption or counter measures. Not in an offensive capability. Unless you mount it on a battleship.
Railguns and new kinetic energy weapons seem to the natural trend following on the graph (in the article)
Rifle --> Railgun --> Energy Weapons?
- 3pt14159 7y agoGot to store that energy somewhere, right? At a certain point your just re-inventing X-ray lasers via nuclear explosion. I think the hard part about modern war technology is making sure you quickly neutralize adversaries whilst minimizing collateral damage. That's why drones are exciting. In theory, anyway. Also defence against cyberattack is hard. So far it's only nationstates that seem to be able to hit infrastructure and autonomous systems, but I worry about proliferation to terrorist groups.
- jjoonathan 7y agoIMO the most useful thing about lasers is that they disrupt the idea that "humans can't be jammed." Humans are visual, and even if you put people behind tinted glass or cameras, lasers jam visual systems. I don't think the consequences of readily available good visual jamming have fully sunk in to the tactical playbook yet.