Technology Marches On: Shipboard Laser Weaponry Deployed
- Thread starter SSWarlock
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Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
I'm waiting for one that can take out warheads in orbit.phavoc said:
Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
Ah, your repeating yourself three times! Let me ask you this question: Is a bullet proof vest argument against carrying a gun? What if in Traveller your opponent uses reflect armor and spins on his tippy toes like a ballerina? Is that proof against laser weapons?Reynard said:
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
That made no sense at all. I assume you are trying a bit of humor otherwise you would know more about beam weapon technology for the past few decades and the inherent failures such as I listed. Laser weapons are still very weak so reflective coatings scatters a beam with ease while a spin prevents said modern weak beam weapons from focusing the energy on a single point to burn through.
As to bullet proof vests and dance moves, do you know anything about physics?! A vest protects a single location.. mostly. Have yet to make a full suit of Kevlar that is anything but useless. An armor piercing bullet also helps even the odds. Compared to a laser, and there are NO working portable anti-personnel lasers, a bullet packs all its energy in a very small area delivering the force in a fraction of a second. Tell me again how spinning neutralizes this?
If you are going to rebut me, at least stay on the same subject and read a little first.
As to bullet proof vests and dance moves, do you know anything about physics?! A vest protects a single location.. mostly. Have yet to make a full suit of Kevlar that is anything but useless. An armor piercing bullet also helps even the odds. Compared to a laser, and there are NO working portable anti-personnel lasers, a bullet packs all its energy in a very small area delivering the force in a fraction of a second. Tell me again how spinning neutralizes this?
If you are going to rebut me, at least stay on the same subject and read a little first.
sideranautae
Mongoose
Rick said:
Yes. It currently isn't powerful enough to use against another warship.
sideranautae
Mongoose
Reynard said:
Nope. The military uses FEL's. Reflective coatings do nothing to that beam.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
The FEL aspect seem more for making a laser multi-purpose rather more powerful. A few articles I found still say they need to develop higher energy FEL laser systems to be actually effective. Must be why one report I heard today says the system is still ten years away.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-11/navys-free-electron-laser-system-will-be-more-just-death-ray
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-11/navys-free-electron-laser-system-will-be-more-just-death-ray
sideranautae
Mongoose
Reynard said:
I never said it made a laser more powerful. You COMPLETELY missed the point I made. Read it again.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
First you say they use FELs then you say reflective coatings do nothing against a beam. Put together, which is what I assume you were doing, says FEL lasers make reflective coatings useless. Sounds like you were counterpointing my previous observation that reflective coating on missiles would neutralizes laser weapons. A FEL laser is just capable of many uses as well a weapon but it is not yet a powerful enough weapon.
Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
A reflective coating is effective only on certain wavelengths, not all of them. Another problem with bullets are they are slow, and have limited range compared to a laser beam, also bullets weigh more than a beam of light, and so long as a person has energy, he can keep firing his laser weapon. As for being man-portable, a person who fires a hand held laser, probably couldn't fire it very accurately up to its maximum range.Reynard said:
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
Actually all you need is a targeting laser, that little red dot on a target. A laser is a beam of light travelling, for all intents and purposes, at the speed of light and reaching a target instantaneously. Forget cinematic laser guns that you can follow with your eye. Whatever you can see with the red dot is going to be hit with the laser when you pull the trigger.
Really, there are wavelengths that bypass a reflective surface? Just because we can't see gamma rays doesn't mean they aren't affected by the properties of a reflective surface. It's the power of the energy that will allow some to bleed through, not frequency or wavelength. Heat a mirror with intense intra-red and it will melt but you need a lot of heat t directly affect it, not just indirectly heating the air around it.
Really, there are wavelengths that bypass a reflective surface? Just because we can't see gamma rays doesn't mean they aren't affected by the properties of a reflective surface. It's the power of the energy that will allow some to bleed through, not frequency or wavelength. Heat a mirror with intense intra-red and it will melt but you need a lot of heat t directly affect it, not just indirectly heating the air around it.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/air-force-wants-airplanes-with-laser-cannons-by-2022/ar-BBkhdtJ
Lasers are now being considered for aircraft. We are a little step closer to TL 9.
Considering the posts on this thread, I saw one line in the story that makes a point about the effectiveness of laser weapons, how sensitive they are when focusing on a target to do damage:
“aircraft tend to shake more than a ship does: A ship rolls but it doesn’t vibrate as much.” Vibration is hard on any complex machinery, but it’s especially problematic for a laser, which has to hold its beam steady enough to burn through a single spot on the target."
We can assume space and starships are much steadier than naval vessels or aircraft but it does show an energy weapon needs to focus. This explains why damage in the game is variable and why a beam laser does less damage then a pulse.
Lasers are now being considered for aircraft. We are a little step closer to TL 9.
Considering the posts on this thread, I saw one line in the story that makes a point about the effectiveness of laser weapons, how sensitive they are when focusing on a target to do damage:
“aircraft tend to shake more than a ship does: A ship rolls but it doesn’t vibrate as much.” Vibration is hard on any complex machinery, but it’s especially problematic for a laser, which has to hold its beam steady enough to burn through a single spot on the target."
We can assume space and starships are much steadier than naval vessels or aircraft but it does show an energy weapon needs to focus. This explains why damage in the game is variable and why a beam laser does less damage then a pulse.
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
The point you obviously missed is we do have them and there's physical evidence the weapon needs to hold the beam on the target to succeed. Time makes them better. By the game mechanics, starship beam weapons still suffer the physical problems of the modern lasers. The range modifier table for ship weapons can describe a miss as the beam at great range wavered enough to not focus long enough to cause any damage just like the random damage roll.
