RE: Laser snipers

At 9:18 PM -0400 9/17/01, Brian Bell wrote:
>True. But it would ionize it all the way to the target. Thus the sonic
boom
>would not be as localized as a gun shot. However, if there were the
>accompaning electrical discharge (lightning), it could show almost
exactly
>where the sniper is.

Achaa. Good point. There isn't the Bang/Crack sound of the rifle. 
Just the Crack of the laser. And it's going past you but you just 
can't tell from where and along where. Just that it passed near you.

>
>On the other hand the film I saw (several years ago) of an high energy
laser
>hitting a target did NOT leave a visible trail (spectrum was above
visible).
>I could not tell if there was any associated sound because the target
>exploded as the metal was superheated.

I'd suspect that the thermal effects of the target would be as nearly 
instantaneous as that of the air/thermal effects, or close enough 
that it'd not be detectable by the Mk 1 Ear. Use of far better gear 
(EW trooper) would be needed.

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