China has laser cannon aimed at Taiwan. Possibly.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2003-12-22 07:25pm

Taipei Times story, bit of an unusual one.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2003-12-22 07:26pm

Newtonian Fury · Post by **Newtonian Fury** » 2003-12-22 07:29pm

I'd expect a less bullshitty article from Taipei Times.

Wait...no I didn't.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-12-22 07:39pm

Maybe they saw a sci-fi movie.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-12-22 07:42pm

Someone has been watching SW too much...

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-12-22 07:59pm

They seem to read too much about Reagan an his Star-Wars technology SDI......

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-12-22 09:20pm

A land-based laser weapon? Are we even trying to make anything like that?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-12-23 01:18am

Watch out! they might try to fire it at Taiwan! Oh, wait, theres the curvature of the Earth. Phew, good thing light can't bend like that.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-12-23 01:53am

kojikun wrote:Watch out! they might try to fire it at Taiwan! Oh, wait, theres the curvature of the Earth. Phew, good thing light can't bend like that.

It's a que-ball laser beam. Or something...

Seriously, they would have to bounce it off a blimp or satelite. Ala Die Another Day, anyone?

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-12-23 12:05pm

[Baghdad Bob] There is no Chinese laser aimed at Taiwan. There never was a Chinese aser pointed at Taiwan. If there were a Chinese laser pointed at Taiwan it would not be able to penetrate Taiwan's navigational shields. [/Baghdad Bob]

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-12-23 01:09pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:[Baghdad Bob] There is no Chinese laser aimed at Taiwan. There never was a Chinese aser pointed at Taiwan. If there were a Chinese laser pointed at Taiwan it would not be able to penetrate Taiwan's navigational shields. [/Baghdad Bob]

Funny thing is, that's fuckin' true.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2003-12-23 01:10pm

Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong but can't light be bent by gravitational forces?

Dark Hellion · Post by **Dark Hellion** » 2003-12-23 02:49pm

Yah, but it is going a bit too fast to expect it to drop like that.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-12-23 03:02pm

StormTrooperTR889 wrote:Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong but can't light be bent by gravitational forces?

Entire galaxies are required to bend light fractions of a degree.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-12-23 03:27pm

kojikun wrote:Entire galaxies are required to bend light fractions of a degree.

Or a black hole, or other significant point-mass.

However, I don't think that China is capable of generating billions of solar masses' worth of black hole just for the sake of shooting Taiwan with a bigass laser. They could do more damage by dropping the black hole on Taiwan.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-12-23 03:41pm

Crayz9000 wrote:However, I don't think that China is capable of generating billions of solar masses' worth of black hole just for the sake of shooting Taiwan with a bigass laser. They could do more damage by dropping the black hole on Taiwan.

They could do more damage just by HAVING a black hole. Ofcourse, it would be infinitely cheaper to just, you know, nuke taiwan.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-23 04:29pm

Andrew J. wrote:A land-based laser weapon? Are we even trying to make anything like that?

The US Army is actively testing a laser that shoots down artillery shells and missiles. Its range however is very short and even when ready for service it will be pretty damn useless as an offensive weapon.

Axis Kast · Post by **Axis Kast** » 2003-12-23 05:58pm

China toys with lasers, but not more than most. They've apparently grown quite attached to encorporating them in tank defensive suites. Ostensibly, the laser-defense system blinds enemy commanders by ruining their retinas during combat. This new accusation is just odd though.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-12-23 09:31pm

Axis Kast wrote:China toys with lasers, but not more than most. They've apparently grown quite attached to encorporating them in tank defensive suites. Ostensibly, the laser-defense system blinds enemy commanders by ruining their retinas during combat. This new accusation is just odd though.

Gunners retinas, actually. It's a cheap gimmick, you can shield the tank optics from the effects IIRC. As it is, the Soviets had such a system mounted on BRDM-2s back in the 1980s. Or so I hear.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-24 04:40am

Vympel wrote:
Gunners retinas, actually. It's a cheap gimmick, you can shield the tank optics from the effects IIRC. As it is, the Soviets had such a system mounted on BRDM-2s back in the 1980s. Or so I hear.

The US military already coats all its optics, vehicle and handheld with anti laser stuff. Glasses, which do the same for infantry, are also coming into service. Not so much from a fear of dedicated laser blinding weapons, which are illegal, but simply because you can't be sure all the enemies laser designators and rangefinders are eye safe. I'd expect Russia has been doing the same.

However if the Chinese have a system specifically designed to go after eyes I haven't heard of it. They have however claimed to have tank laser communication systems, and lasers meant to blind optical systems (which might do in the users eyes depending on what the system is). However they've never demonstrated either system nor has there been anything more then a photo or two to substantiate the reports.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-12-24 04:46am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
The US military already coats all its optics, vehicle and handheld with anti laser stuff. Glasses, which do the same for infantry, are also coming into service. Not so much from a fear of dedicated laser blinding weapons, which are illegal, but simply because you can't be sure all the enemies laser designators and rangefinders are eye safe. I'd expect Russia has been doing the same.

However if the Chinese have a system specifically designed to go after eyes I haven't heard of it. They have however claimed to have tank laser communication systems, and lasers meant to blind optical systems (which might do in the users eyes depending on what the system is). However they've never demonstrated either system nor has there been anything more then a photo or two to substantiate the reports.

Yes there are, I present the JD-3 active laser self-defence weapon, mounted on the roof of the Type 98 MBT.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2003-12-24 07:18am

Does anyone else find it rather surreal that some weapons are ok in war, and others considered illegal?

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-12-24 07:27am

Crown wrote:Does anyone else find it rather surreal that some weapons are ok in war, and others considered illegal?

Yep. Why is being burned to death worse than having chunks blown out of you? (for example.)

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2003-12-26 12:56am

Being chunked is probably usually quicker then burning. I know I'd pick being chunked in a battlefield over a slow death by fire.

Symmetry · Post by **Symmetry** » 2003-12-26 12:43pm

StormTrooperTR889 wrote:Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong but can't light be bent by gravitational forces?

It might bend enough if the Earth just a handful of orders of magnitude denser. Light going past Erath doesn't even bend a fraction of an arc second, and it would need to bend on the order of a degree to hit Taiwaan (I'm fuzzy on the exact distance.)