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China Claims to Have a Laser Assault Rifle That Can Set Clothes on Fire
China allegedly has a "laser assault rifle" that can fire a thousand shots at a time, "carbonizing" human skin and tissue.
The ZKZM-500 laser assault rifle, profiled in the South China Morning Post, is described as a laser wonder weapon. The article raises more questions than it answers, though Beijing's research into laser weapons is particularly pertinent given recent allegations that Chinese military personnel have injured U.S. military personnel with high-powered lasers.
According to the report, the ZKZM-500 is a handheld laser assault rifle. Unlike ordinary sleek assault rifles, this weapon is a clunky rectangular shape with a pistol grip, foregrip, and a telescopic sight. The weapon is powered by a lithium battery capable of supplying power for up to a thousand two-second shots.
[...] [It's] difficult to believe this weapon is as powerful as advertised. Although the article discusses the weapon's burning effects in detail, the ZKZM-500's wattage is conveniently left out. [...] Power storage is another problem. The ZKZM-500 can reportedly fire a thousand two-second shots, the equivalent of 33 minutes of laser power, from a "lithium battery." There's no way a weapon the size of a rifle can store that much energy internally given today's technology, even if it were stuffed with batteries. To store the equivalent of 33 minutes of laser power would require a considerable power supply outside the rifle itself.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 05 2018, @07:32PM (10 children)
First up - I got hung up on that 15mm caliber bit. Okay, so maybe we have some confusion when translating from Chinese to English, but still . . . even the Chinese understand that metric and old English measurements don't mix. 1 caliber is one inch, thus a .50 caliber machine gun fires bullets that are about half an inch wide. 15 millimeters is 15 millimeters, and has no need of some meaningless term being added. Who would write "15mm inch" anywhere?
The video on the linked page in the summary requires scripting to run. The list of third party sites that want you to enable scripts is long, so I gave up and went to Youtube. A search for zkzm laser brings up several videos that are somewhat interesting, but not the same video. (most are crap videos delivered in a robovoice, that only show a couple of pictures without any context)
The claim of a thousand shots from a single charge of a lithium-ion battery? Nonsense. Maybe if it were mounted on an electric car, and that car were fully charged, you could get a thousand shots out of it. Maybe. I question whether this ~7 pound weapon can make multiple shots at all. If it does, that number is almost certainly less then the number of fingers and thumbs that most humans are equipped with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)
To be clear, you probably know more about firearms than me, so if you insist you're right I'll let it be.
That being said... I had been under the impression that caliber referred to the dimension being sized (the barrel width), and that the conversion to inches was only a shorthand convention. So for example, "that is a .45 inch caliber gun" -> "that is a .45 caliber gun." It's like saying somebody is "5 foot 7 (feet tall)."
As such, specifying a mm caliber is fine, as it is simply saying what is being measured. Case in point, there is metric caliber [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by frojack on Thursday July 05 2018, @09:02PM (3 children)
No, specifying a mm caliber is NOT fine. It leaves a serious question as to the size of the beam
You should have quit after your first sentence.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:27PM
How does "15mm caliber" provide less information than ".50 caliber"?
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:42PM
Brah, quit trolling, it isn't a good look on you. Your pedantry isn't even accurate. There is absolutely no issue with specifying a caliber in millimeters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 07 2018, @07:37AM
Sorry, but calibre as a mechanical property is the diameter in arbitrary units of something of circular section, qualitatively.
From French, Arabic, Greek when inches and fireguns wasn't even invented.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:51PM
7.62 mm caliber [wikipedia.org]
The caliber of your instruction lets a lot to desire.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by leftover on Friday July 06 2018, @02:33AM (3 children)
R1956 is right about "15 mm caliber" being malformed. Finding other examples of such use does not make it any more correct. If someone wants to say that, the correct term would be "15 mm bore".
All that said, the reported laser weapon just looks silly. Rather like burning ants with a magnifying glass then claiming you have a directed energy weapon.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 06 2018, @03:51AM (1 child)
Bingo. It didn't cross my mind, but that is the correct terminology to convey what the authors were trying to say.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Friday July 06 2018, @02:04PM
It can be arranged, though. I mean, if you really-really want it. You can even DIY.
With the warning, though, that a 15mm caliber will let quite a large hole crossing your mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 06 2018, @01:59PM
caliber [merriam-webster.com]
"Usually expressed" != "only expressed"
Get over it, the English language evolves, "7.62mm caliber" is standard and is in active use both as diameter of bore/bullet and as a correct expression.
Even more, English doesn't have a monopoly on the term, and Runaway may be so in love with word coming through history from Arabic [etymonline.com] (like "algebra" and "algorithm" that very likely terrorized him his entire life)