
China's destructive laser rifle has a half-mile range - Ours90
https://www.popsci.com/china-laser-rifle-energy-weapon?src=SOC&dom=tw
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PaulHoule
Things like this have been at the prototype stage at Sandia since the 1990s.
When I started reading the article I started imagining how you would package a
fiber laser and battery and when I saw the picture it looked like I'd
imagined.

That weapon is fielded and it fires 2 second pulses. Prototype weapons in the
U.S. fire much faster pulses that vaporize the first millimeter or so of your
skin or clothing and produce an effect similar to a "flashbang"; once the air
ionizes it absorbs the tail end of the pulse, the expanding gases create a
physical impact that can knock you down.

