paul-s

...are they possible

Johnny E

I dunno

Johnny E

Guess no-one else knows either

paul-s

hmmmm

danwrx1980

The army (more the US Army) has been testing them for some years now, but they are probably not the type you are thinking of, that can cut tanks in half and stuff.
They are used to blind tank and vehicle crew by aiming them at the optics that fighting vehicles use to see out of, and the current US and british tanks i believe have a system to stop it being used against them.

Also, the Americans and Soviets both have working lasers that were mounted high in orbit to be used against the first line of defence against nuclear strikes, they were to be used to blow up the missiles before they deployed the warheads, as well as earth mounted railguns.

danwrx1980

do a google search on Strategic Defence Initiative, or SDI.

root

Yes they are possible. I was involved in the Airborne Laser project.

Adrian F

I thought the problem was getting a big enough energy source to mount it in space or make it portable? so that it had enough power to shoot any thing down or damge armoured vehicles.

All Torque

Yes William Shatner and his boys had them nearly 40 years ago called a phazer though, they also had those little flip communication devices that we now call mobile phones.

Chelspeed

Lasers that can destroy big metal objects are available (just) but are the size of a three bedroom house and need a dedicated major power station size energy source to run them. So the days of hand held models are a couple of years away (or centuries more like).

The yanks demonstrated a SDI laser against a missile a couple of years ago, it was sort of a success. Turned out later thay'd had to fiddle the results by pressurising the fuel tank to a couple of psi short of blowing itself to bits on it's own. When the laser hit it the missile blew up but it probably would have done by itself a few seconds later.

GC8

Did someone say 'rail- gun'? Surely not.....?

Poor Guy

the US developed a plane (jumbo i think) that had a laser mounted in it to shoot missiles down. Was extremely expensive and not quick enough to intercept so they binned it i think.