U.S army reveals its latest weapon . . .

[The Shadowscythe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18630622

A - FREAKING - LIGHTNING - GUN.

[Ben-Jammin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18630622

A - FREAKING - LIGHTNING - GUN.

MECHWARRIOR PPC!!!!!

[Robot Monkey]

Deep-fried terrorist, anyone?

[muffinman42]

Well good to know you have your priorities straight:
Killing people > GOING TO MARS

Seriously, as awesome as Laser Guided Lightning is...
Actually no.
Laser Guided Lightning sounds fucking awesome.
(Though really it's nice that you've got a new toy; but what problem does it solve?)

You have your lightning gun; Please now work on something useful.

[Thesson]

This. This has replaced nukes apparently. And please visit Mars. It's lonely up here.

[Tzan]

but what problem does it solve?

Shoot down incoming missiles. With a speed of light projectile, makes targeting easier.

Shoot down enemy jets.

Destroy shit without needing ammo and the entire supply chain that makes it and ships it to the combat zone.

Write your name on the moon.

Death Ray Satellite assassinates targets and makes it look like a lightning strike accident.

[samuelzz10]

but what problem does it solve?

Shoot down incoming missiles. With a speed of light projectile, makes targeting easier.

Shoot down enemy jets.

Destroy shit without needing ammo and the entire supply chain that makes it and ships it to the combat zone.

Write your name on the moon.

Death Ray Satellite assassinates targets and makes it look like a lightning strike accident.

In other news, over 500 Iraq refugees have been reported dead, from lightning strikes. more on that later

[muffinman42]

"Freak lightning storms have been observed near several US military bases, It's reported that more civilians died than during the holocaust. The US sent several armed squads to check for survivors but claimed they found none"

[RoC77]

I can see this as a weapon against soft targets, but planes & vehicles are either already designed to channel lightning or it just passes through to the ground without doing much harm. At least you can now easily channel power to over 40 Deloreans without using plutonium.

[mgb519]

Um...no. Lightning strikes channel a lot of energy, which means a lot of heat. That much heat is not good for the health or physical integrity of anything.

[IVhorseman]

It's not actually lightning - it's just an electromagnetic current running through a laser beam. It strips all the electrons off the air molecules and boom! you got a bunch of pissed off protons all in one place. That's quite a lot of energy transfer.

Destroy shit without needing ammo and the entire supply chain that makes it and ships it to the combat zone.

50 Billion Watts of power per shot is one hell of a supply chain.

In other news, I already made brikwars stats for this.

[muffinman42]

Yeah, it's actually just ionising the air to form a plasma, and pure plasma has practically instant conductivity.
It's lightning, as that's what lightning is! The lasers just there to provide the energy to allow the plasma to form for the electricity to run though.
Also 50 billion watts is a LOT, A ninth of the USA's total electrical power usage. For ONE shot.



It would make a cool brikwars weapon though.

[Robot Monkey]

This, odds are, will be a tank-mounted weapon due to it's power supply requirements.

[samuelzz10]

This, odds are, will be a tank-mounted weapon due to it's power supply requirements.

I am inspired.....

[Zupponn]

In other news, the scientists have decided to call the weapon the Tesla Cannon.