Gameology – Laser Weaponry

Gameology

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Surprise, ‘laser’ is an acronym. Lasers themselves, just like the word by which we refer to them, have become so ingrained in public knowledge that people have stopped questioning them and started just accepting them. This becomes a bit of a problem because really they wouldn’t make for very good weaponry.

Let’s jump back a bit. Weaponry was invented to serve a singular purpose – wound or kill a target. It can be used for other things, such as shooting out lights or opening doors where videogames are concerned, but their main purpose was, is, and always will be the wounding and/or killing of a specified target. Sharp sticks when thrown required physical strength and skill, so mankind invented the bow. The bow still required strength and skill, so mankind invented gunpowder. Gunpowder was dangerous and inefficient, so mankind invented black powder. To this day ballistics (at least handheld) still use black powder, though it uses a lot of space, and still has a potential to fail or backfire, so mankind should weaponise the laser.

At least, Sci-Fi would tell us that the latter sentence is the way to go. On paper it does all seem good. With a sufficient energy source you could potentially have thousands of shots between reloads. Lasers are basically light, which travels fast enough to almost negate travel time, drop and coriolis. They would similarly be minimally affected by gravity and other such considerations current ballistics need to take into account. There are, however, a few rarely addressed caveats.

halo laser
However, looking bloody cool is definitely not a caveat

First, let’s deal with the purpose of weaponry in the first place – to kill the enemy. Granted, it can be argued that weapons can be used to neutralise in non-lethal ways, simply wound a would-be assailant before they can do any damage. Laser weaponry would in theory be significantly worse than current physical ballistics in both these regards. In the physics of being shot it isn’t the round that does the damage, it’s the force and energy. Step by step, what basically happens with high velocity ballistics is that at the point of impact the projectile suddenly has to slow down due to the resistance of whatever it hits. However, due to the laws of physics being the way they are, the energy that the projectile was using for its momentum can’t just vanish. This manifests itself as kinetic energy, essentially punching its way outward from the point of impact of the projectile. In essence, what was originally a small penetrating projectile suddenly becomes an expanding cone of force working its way through the object. This energy is where the real damage is done, rupturing, tearing, and generally moving things that are not intended for such things. This is why exit wounds are always larger than entry wounds.

There’s an equation that tells us what the force would be in such an instance as well. Force is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by the acceleration of the object. In this case the mass of the projectile multiplied by the acceleration (deceleration is just acceleration in the opposite direction to motion). Because ballistics these days have mass then there is impact force. Lasers, however, are made of light, and as such have a negligible mass. There would be close to zero impact force. The major factor in projectile damage would cease to exist.

This isn’t the only trouble with replacing bullets with lasers either. Bullets tend to leave wounds and holes. Their purpose is to make wounds and holes. Lasers would create a hole but instantly cauterise it. Humane, yes, but undesirable in an artifact of war. In fact lasers are so good at cauterising wounds that they are currently employed for that very purpose by medical professionals (and the occasional amateur I suppose).

There is also the fact that lasers, at least weapons grade lasers, would be very hard to stop. In law enforcement contexts, ammunition referred to as hollow point are used. The titular hollow points of these rounds cause the projectile to expand, or mushroom, upon impact. This expansion causes catastrophic amounts of kinetic energy to impart itself upon the internal organs of a target, though it also severely limits penetration. This often means that despite the greater damage potential, they are far more controllable, making over-penetration (the round coming out the other side increasing the risk of collateral damage) nigh impossible. Lasers would be harder to stop, instead increasing the risk of over-penetration, thus increasing the risk of hitting someone or something that isn’t a target. So yeah, over-penetration tends to be a bad thing.

xcom laser
Unless of course everyone is in a perfect queue then over-penetrate away

There are a few possibilities where laser weaponry could be an upgrade however. As mention before, the fact that lasers are for all intents and purposes light, marksmen could use laser weapons to make longer distance shots with greater accuracy. There’s a long way to go before this becomes viable however. Not only would the technology need to be properly weaponised beyond missile defence systems etc, but the portability of the technology used to create such powerful beams would also need to be looked into. Overall, laser weaponry seems to be further than the moniker “near-future” will allow. That isn’t to say that there isn’t some fantastically sci-fi gadgets out there that fall into this category, but that’s a story for another time…

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