How much energy would a usable laser small-arm require?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-07 10:27pm

http://home.insightbb.com/~jmengel4/rai ... intro.html

Check that out for starters. Lasers? Blasters? Pah, nothing like a 2kg solid slug of tungsten carbide going at several klicks/second into your target and out the other end in a white hot state.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-04-07 10:32pm

Yeah, just be sure you hold the stock real tight to your shoulder first

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-04-08 01:47am

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I'll be honest, lasers really aren't the best rifle for modern soldiers, they don't have anywhere near the power for defeating high thermal tolerant materials, while a .50 BMG round will do it nicely

We're talking small arms now, not tank busters, against humans they'd do fine.
And they're the perfect sniper rifle.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-08 01:54pm

Howedar wrote:Yeah, just be sure you hold the stock real tight to your shoulder first

Ah, you seem to be under the assumption that I'm stupid enough to believe the film Eraser and that infantry railguns are nice and handy and ready to be used now. They also fire aluminium at .99% of lightspeed and have no recoil, those magic vapour trails are cool too.

Please, I'm not totally stupid, the technology is for TANKS and SHIPS and last I checked, recoil wasn't an issue for these. The tech is there now for a tank mounted railgun, letalone naval ones.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-04-08 01:59pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:I'll be honest, lasers really aren't the best rifle for modern soldiers, they don't have anywhere near the power for defeating high thermal tolerant materials, while a .50 BMG round will do it nicely
We're talking small arms now, not tank busters, against humans they'd do fine.
And they're the perfect sniper rifle.

You'll just need to get a) the powersource b) lasing medium c) make it less than 10kg worth of weight d) strong enough and at the right frequency to have a decent range and still take out anyone with tinfoil around them letalone armour.

That's still ages off, that and they'd be no different to sniper rifles today since we can find snipers from the sonic boom and heat waves made from the round, a laser still makes one hell of a crack, but at least it has no recoil nor range compensation.