Liek OMG! Phasers! PEW! PEW!

Despite ray-gunless futures proposed by Starship Troopers and the new Battlestar Gallactica, it looks like directed energy weapons may be coming to a future near you. The US Air Force currently has a man-portable laser rifle in the prototype stages. The weapon is roughly the size and weight of the M-60 7.62mm light machinegun, also called the SAW or Squad Automatic Weapon, currently used by the US military.
Dubbed the PHaSR for Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response system, this non-lethal weapon is designed to temporarily blind enemies with low-intensity laser beams, rendering them incapacitated. The fact that the effects are temporary allows the program to circumvent the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, which prohibits the development of directed energy weapons which permantly blind their targets.
Although years away from having a fieldable version of the PHaSR, it is an impressive start down the road of non-lethal weaponry, and that's always a good thing.



NewScientist.com
Jane's Defence Weekly
gizmag
US Air Force Facts Sheet
Strategy Page
Military.com

Not to be a bubble burster, but an M-60 machine gun is not a SAW. The weapons system commonly referred to as a SAW is the 5.56mm M249. The M-60 weighs a good eight pounds more unloaded, at around 23 lbs to the SAW's 15.

That being said... looks like a cool toy. I'd never carry one, but I'm sure it'd be great for certain situations. For now I'll stick with blasting people in the dark with a bright ass surefire flashlight.

-T

Oops...

PEW PEW!!! PEW PEW!!!!

The hell with this. the P90 Owns ALL!

GREAT. I've been waiting like 30 years for ray guns and now what? They shoot sissy rays? If I laser somebody's face, the face should be gone or the head needs to explode. This is a rip-off.

That's neat-o and all, but easily defeated with a pair of 532nm blocking glasses.

That is terribly disappointing. A LOW intensity laser? Where's the kind that's gonna saw limbs off? C'mon, guys! Get on the ball!





Also, where's my flying car?

Keep an eye on this, and watch the power upgrade programme. Somewhere over the next few years, it'll be capable of blinding people permanently. Coming to a National Guard unit near you, pretty soon.

Oh yeah... if you're blinded in the course of civil unrest, will your health insurance pay to fix it, or to get you paid home help? Ask. Then ask what this programme is really intended to do.

If you can afford them, and if they aren't licensed.

Seriously. They might as well call it a GAYser.

I'm. . .so sorry.

Tell you what...a Survivor will give you one mean mother of a headache if you look directly into it at close range.

It's just not cool enough until it can slag an approaching mid-sized sedan at 150 yards.

I bet. For our trucks we have 2.2 million candlepower spotlamps... You can feel the heat being thrown off that beam at around 15 feet. Crazy.

Where is:
-my flying car.
-where is it.

They're around a little over three hundred dollars, well within most governmental budgets, and widely available in most basic laser safety catalogs. I use a pair everyday at work.

Remind me again, how many people live on less than a dollar a day? To the nearest billion would be okay.

And what does the fact that poor people exist in the world have to do with this at all? It does nothing to dimiss the fact that this novelty technology is easily defeated by very low-tech means. You're arguing just to argue.

The intention of the builders ( = the intended targets). And to point out that not everyone has a government on their side, or access to basic laser safety catalogues. This looks like a terror weapon to me; most effective against the poor, and intended to keep them that way.