Cid SilverWing:
Terrifyingly ambitious, if I do say so myself.

Starting to wonder how long it'll be before lasers obsolete gunpowder.

Lasers have their place but will never completely replace projectiles. You have tons of payload options with projectiles, and the systems are much more flexible than any laser system in the foreseeable future. Not to mention the fact that lasers are incapable of indirect fire.

Please someone travel back to '43 and tell people even if they win the war, 2013 will see the development of a

GERMAN. DEATH. RAY.

Then sell them spare pants.

Most important question though - does it cut Vibranium?

rhizhim:

you could just say mount it on a horses head.

bow before the lasercorn!

And pray that it doesn't bow before you.

Gilhelmi:

But I must start to wonder, When will the NRA get around to ensuring my right to hunt with a Laser Rifle? I guess they have bigger battles to fight at the moment, maybe next year.

Hunting lazers = pre-cooked food = win.

With so much of technology reliant on improved energy storage, a breakthrough within a few decades is almost guaranteed. And once we can store the energy required, these weapons will dominate.

It surprises me, however, that a series of superimposed lasers aren't used. Individually harmless, but focused on one geometric position the effect could be devastating. Think of it like a weaponised 3D printer.

Defending against LASER based defenses would be something only first world countries could afford. But it's certainly doable.

Lucky Godzilla:
snip

Vuliev:
snap

Ok, so relection wouldnt realy work, but my point still stands. This has a lot of work to do before it will be worthwhile, mostly in the area of range and targeting. 1Km sounds like a lot, but unless you know where the missle is going to land and can get there in time, you would need an insane number of the things to cover, for examples, all populated areas in range of palastine missles.

Damn it the Germans beat us to it. Well that's ok it's not like they've ever done anything bad with weapons...

Redlin5:
It's always the Germans, isn't it? Still, very fascinating. Conventional guns will never be taken out of production however. This stuff sounds incredibly expensive and even if a handheld weapon were devised, I bet it would be very limited. Probably using a powerpack on the back or something for energy. Who knows...

tanks. lazer tanks with mini reactors for power. unstoppable.

also, as for how fast it works, its all about aiming, and its going to aim as good as the aiming mechamnism is, and for that they use real military grade AA weapon mechanism, so it aism as good as it used to, just destroys more efficiently.

it'd be better if it made a "pew pew" sound too.

Cid SilverWing:
Terrifyingly ambitious, if I do say so myself.

Starting to wonder how long it'll be before lasers obsolete gunpowder.

I would think the only thing holding that back is powering the damn things. Making a 50kW laser that someone can hold and operate independent of a massive box producing the requisite power would be difficult, I'd think.

Still cool, though.

Cid SilverWing:
Terrifyingly ambitious, if I do say so myself.

Starting to wonder how long it'll be before lasers obsolete gunpowder.

Please stop saying "if I do say so myself" when you're not talking about something you did. Please.

On topic: I demand a share of the profits considering this was clearly inspired by the beautiful human being that is me.

I'm not surprised Rheinmetall came up with this, they have a long history of creating the most OP weapons of the decade.

Does this mean we could use mirrors as a defense?

meatloaf231:
Let me get this straight.

Humanity just made a laser that we then used to blow up robots.

Holy shit.

Did we basically just invent lascannon?

OT: This is way OP. Nerf it, naow.

Elijah Newton:
Now to find some sharks.

(please, by all that is good, have we finally arrived at the happy day when nobody catches the reference?)

no sharks, we do however have ill tempered mutated sea bass

It makes me so happy whenever science proves to me that maybe our world isn't so boring after all.

Groenteman:

Lucky Godzilla:
snip

Vuliev:
snap

Ok, so relection wouldnt realy work, but my point still stands. This has a lot of work to do before it will be worthwhile, mostly in the area of range and targeting. 1Km sounds like a lot, but unless you know where the missle is going to land and can get there in time, you would need an insane number of the things to cover, for examples, all populated areas in range of palastine missles.

True, but theres an easy solution. You simperingly build an even stronger laserrr. Theyre all prototypes and proofs of concept at this moment anyway.

This is all well and good, but where's my fucking lightsaber?

Quazimofo:

Cid SilverWing:
Terrifyingly ambitious, if I do say so myself.

Starting to wonder how long it'll be before lasers obsolete gunpowder.

I doubt gunpowder/projectile weapons will ever become 100% obsolete. Lasers are awesome, but there ain't nothing like a bolter round (which SOMEONE should be working on RIGHT NOW).

I think someone must have said once that swords will never become obsolete, firearms are just so inaccurate and slow.

Yes yes, that is nice and all. Can we now please start to make laser bread/cheese slicers?

But conventional warfare is dead...

chozo_hybrid:
Does this mean we could use mirrors as a defense?

Yes. For like a nano-second. You also couldn't reflect the laser in it's destructive power.
So actually no.

OT: As a German engineer (medical, but still!) this makes me kind of proud. We still got it :)
And now: please invent some things I actually hope to see in use. (assuming this will be used not only for defensive situations).

Roggen Bread:

chozo_hybrid:
Does this mean we could use mirrors as a defense?

Yes. For like a nano-second. You also couldn't reflect the laser in it's destructive power.
So actually no.

OT: As a German engineer (medical, but still!) this makes me kind of proud. We still got it :)
And now: please invent some things I actually hope to see in use. (assuming this will be used not only for defensive situations).

So that's sci-fi bullshit then, damn.

chozo_hybrid:

Roggen Bread:

chozo_hybrid:
Does this mean we could use mirrors as a defense?

Yes. For like a nano-second. You also couldn't reflect the laser in it's destructive power.
So actually no.

OT: As a German engineer (medical, but still!) this makes me kind of proud. We still got it :)
And now: please invent some things I actually hope to see in use. (assuming this will be used not only for defensive situations).

So that's sci-fi bullshit then, damn.

Well, yes.
You can try this yourself.
Just take an ordinary laser pointer (this laser is basically just a very very powerful laser pointer) and point it into a mirror (look out for your eyes! (pun not intended)). The reflected point will be by far more spread than your original point.
And the material has to withstand the heat of the laser (and you can heat a mirror with a light bulb. granted, it will take a while longer than a wooden surface), and this baby just melted steel.

While likely effective... that's a heck of an expensive and resource consuming way to counter the threat of RPGs and mortars that are almost literally a dime a dozen. It would need it's own generator likely on standby, not as convenient as some prepared ammo crates.

But such is asynchronous warfare, you have to spend $1'000'00 to counter every $1 they spend.

Groenteman:

Lucky Godzilla:
snip

Vuliev:
snap

Ok, so relection wouldnt realy work, but my point still stands. This has a lot of work to do before it will be worthwhile, mostly in the area of range and targeting. 1Km sounds like a lot, but unless you know where the missle is going to land and can get there in time, you would need an insane number of the things to cover, for examples, all populated areas in range of palastine missles.

We already have tech that can do that. Iron dome will track any missile in Isreal's airspace, and determine where exactly it's going to land befor launching a missile. The process takes about four seconds, and so far has been met with a sucess rate of over 90%

Defeating a DEW AMS is 3 basic components : Rotation, Reflectiveness, Resistance. All weapons built today in terms of rockets and missiles are just thin aluminium tubes packed with explosives and sensitive electronics, stuff that LASERs and pretty much anything lives to destroy. Hardening a weapons system is simple, "Rotation" ; Make the weapon in question spin or otherwise change position within it's trajectory, this ensures that the LASER does not remained focused on one spot on the body of the weapon. "Reflectiveness" ; Some may laugh and think of literal mirrors strapped to rockets, but a reflective or refractive surface does not need to be invinicible to a LASER when it's on a weapon, it simply needs to deflect a high enough percentage of the LASER's energy to ensure that the rocket/missile/etc can hit the target.

Finally, "Resistance" ; this is the largest in scope, from ablative material on the body, photon filters on optic packages to shrinking the payload of the explosives or changing it's composition to resist extreme heat (the concept of C4). When all of these are put together, you should not expect a weapon system that is immune to LASERs, but a weapon system that can survive long enough to reach it's target and destroy it.

You know, if we can manage a decent system of wireless electricity handheld laser guns would be possible. You wouldn't need to carry the pack on your back, but the only problem would be the potential that your power source gets hacked/destroyed/jammed.

Ledan:
You know, if we can manage a decent system of wireless electricity handheld laser guns would be possible.

I'd rather not have lightning bolts permeate and ionize the air around me, to be completely honest...and that's just momentary surges. The energy to sustain a consistent flow of electricity...that's a scary thought.