It is no secret that the military has been looking for an ideal sniper weapon for years; one that is silent, no trajectory, and sub-lethal or lethal. Also, experiments with platform mounted large pulse and laser weapons have been fruitful lately. Techies find this kind of research facinating; but will the foot soldier's weapon be replaced in the future with a pulse weapon...? Here's some interesting things.
"The basic problem with using a laser as a weapon is power. A laser is focused light energy, being sent from the laser to the target in a short burst. Using batteries or generators and capacitors are too heavy for this to be practical. But the right combination of chemicals can provide the needed energy, at least in theory. The solution is a bit more complex. " But the use of chemical HF (hydrogen-flourine) lasers solved the immediate problem, but were deemed too cruel to use.
fyi:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/20080921.aspx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now here's a guy that built a handheld prototype blue ray pulse laser weapon for 300 Euros...not a toy and quite impressive so far, uses 9v for sight lazer and 9 AA for power:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f48/pulse-laser-gun-44995.htmland here's his video...cool looking homemade ray gun proto....potentially lethal he says:
[yt=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="
http://www.youtube.com/v/oC82ECqtcNg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
http://www.youtube.com/v/oC82ECqtcNg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/yt]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
and handheld Laser Gun available for experimentation and purchase:
By Thomas Ricker posted Nov 3rd 2005 11:40AM
"Oh boy, a Laser Ray Gun is now available for purchase from a company called Information Unlimited. This $1750 handheld shooter comes fully assembled, runs on standard AA batteries, and packs enough focused energy to blast a hole in the "hardest of metals." A set of Alkalines loads about a hundred-fifty 6,000 Watt shots with a 20 to 30 second recharge lag between blasts. Oh sure, they'll tell you that the product is intended as an "advanced science project" after digging into the details, and you'll have to sign the "hazardous equipment affidavit" before purchasing since this is a Class IV (read: highly dangerous)"
and you can get the parts to build one here including a C02 lazer tube:
http://amazing1.com/burning-lasers.htm...TM7
.