Re: COLONIAL WEAPONS

I've read with interest some of the opinions expressed about
colonial weapons.

Here's my 2c worth ( some based on professional studies, most not ).

a) A high-tech design may, *if designed with this is mind* be
manufactured
using non-high-tech resources.

Example: That bloody awful weapon, the Sten. It safety and performance
were
exceeded by nearly all other SMGs in the world.
However... it could be (and was) made by the hundred using drainpipe and
welding bars. Any garage capable of simple auto repairs, and any
plumber,
could make em in batch loads. The perfect Resistance weapon. The US M3
"grease Gun" was, in some ways, superior, both in ease of manufacture
and
reliability.

Example: I have personally aided a Mad American in making a simple CPU
(PDP-8) in his kitchen. Our yield was lousy, and the chip needed a
mounting
the size of a matchbox. But about 5% of them worked, after very much
experimentation and keeping the room scrupulously clean. So simple 8- or
12- bit CPUs can be made, quite adequate for many military purposes
(ballistics calculations, power management of lasers, laser ranging
etc).
A Metal Storm-type weapon would be easier to make than a .303, IF there
was a reasonable chemical industry around - say one equal to Germany in
1880.

b) Lasers. The problem here is entirely with the power supply. And their
susceptibility to atmospheric pollution, which ranges from water
droplets
for some frequencies, to smoke in others. Even hard X-rays don't
penetrate
atmosphere too well (that's why you get a fireball from an A-bomb, where
most of the energy is carried off in X-rays and immediately absorbed by
the
atmosphere within 10s, 100s or 1000s of metres, depending on the size).

The good thing about chemically-powered weapons is that chemicals are
power-dense (at least, for a pulse), storable, relatively insensitive to
temperature ( accent on the "relatively" ), simple and cheap.

If you can make a man-portable laser with a power generator capable of
multiple firing (rather than a 1-shot chemical reaction) and fit it on
a backpack, making a powerplant that would drive a 100-tonne tank for a
thousand km and fit in a suitcase is Noooo problem.

Conclusion: I can imagine some special "Colonial Issue" designs, which
can
be made by fairly primitive equipment using local, civilian-grade
materials
that are one heck of a lot better than a bolt-action rifle. But nowhere
near as good as the standard hi-tech, which in turn are not as good as
the state-of-the-art stuff.