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The Army's first laser weapon is almost ready for a fight
- elihu 5y agoNo mention of safety? There's a UN protocol on the use of blinding weapons, signed by the United States and over a hundred other countries, but the terms are pretty loose: you're not allowed to make weapons that deliberately blind people permanently, and you're supposed to employ any safety measures at your disposal to prevent unintentionally blinding people, but if you make a weapon that blinds people by accident and there's no way to make it not blind people by designing it differently, that's apparently okay. It'd be interesting to at least have some mention of whether it's safe to be around these things without protective eyewear when they're operating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Wea...
- simonblack 5y agoOne wonders if it will end up being more effective than the failed rail-gun
- simonblack 5y agoPerhaps as a weapon in space, it might be feasible, where there is nothing to get in the way between the laser's production and the laser's target. But in a normal atmosphere there will be a 'defocusing of the beam' caused by heat blooming. That effect will be even worse in a moist atmosphere.