why would we need plasma guns?

okay i see alot of people saying how cool it would be if we had futuristic weapons like laser or plasma guns

i tried thinking that logically and did not come a conclusion on why we would need them...what WHAT are plasma guns going to be better than our guns? NO its going to be about the same

unless you can some how make large explosions with plasma which i find impossible btw

reply to post by mercanaries3


Because they're freaking awesome duh.

But really, doesn't plasma have the ability to go through certain types of material that conventional bullets are unable to penetrate? I don't know much about the subject, just asking.

reply to post by banandar123


LOL you is stalkin meh....

Originally posted by mercanaries3
reply to post by banandar123

 

LOL you is stalkin meh....

edit on 24-5-2011 by mercanaries3 because: (no reason given)

lol you made like the last 3 new threads on the main page...just noticed that haha...

Well one obvious. If it generated the laser / plasma, no ammo would need to be made

Originally posted by doom27
Well one obvious. If it generated the laser / plasma, no ammo would need to be made

Second is the lethality, and I'm sure Rate of Fire, and I'm sure F(Feet)PS (Travel Time of the Ordinance), Potentially silent, oh... probably a lot more accurate, and possibly even smaller than munitions of today.

Tons of reasons, oh... and yeah, it would go right through armor?

You seen the navy FELaser? Takes out a heavily armored helicopter with no explosion in about 3 seconds.....

Where, ya know... we could stick with shoulder mounted RPG's, and shoot at it 15 times before we hit it.... sounds like a good plan...

Was this a troll topic?

reply to post by mercanaries3
We need plasma guns to shoot plasma, what else, its not like you can just throw it.

Look at a normal gun, you need it to shoot the bullets, you can try throwing the bullets if you like, but it just won't have the same stopping power.

So the reason we need plasma guns, is so you don't have to throw the plasma yourself.

Plasma, is an excellent defensive shield for some ET starcraft. But if your going to make a fusion plasma gun of some sort, you better had be ready to have a way to extinquish plasma fires, if you have to; because you are going to "light the place up."

Cheers,

Erno86

The plasma runs through hollow lazer beams in one weapon. These cause more destruction than regular guns. They also are great for popping corn after wiping out the population that has the natural resources we are after.

If all of my years playing warhammer 40k taught me anything is that plasma guns will explode at the most needed moment so no, plasma guns are worthless and not needed for today's hot, young armies...

If you were a sniper, an energy weapon would get rid of the problem of deviation and windage. Range would be pretty much line of sight. If you could see it, you could hit it. It would also be quieter than any existing firearm. (No pew-pew noises like in the movies.) But some weapons if producing a discharge in a visible wavelength would be disadvantageous because they would paint a bee-line trail back to the shooter. Something that you'd obviously not want when sniping.

The only thing is, current technology doesn't have enough energy density to produce much in the way of man-portable energy weapons. (Other than blinding devices which are supposedly banned under a UN arms treaty. Those that don't fight within the rules have a small advantage there, as OTS consumer-grade laser diodes can easily be weaponized in that regard. And blind combatants are about as useful as dead or otherwise heavily injured ones.) The directed energy weapons that can actually blow things up are relegated to things that can fit on a tank chasis, or some kind of pod used on a ship or aircraft hardpoint mount. They are neither small nor lightweight. And because of the speed-of-light advantage, those are primarily used as anti-air/anti-missile systems taking over the role once covered by Phalanx/CIWS type systems.

Much more exotic energy weapons might be able to deploy packets of stuff like anti-matter. (Obviously speculative at this point, since antimatter isn't something we can regularly produce easily.) A toroidial discharge of current (think ball-lightning) might be stable enough to contain anti-matter within its magnetic field. Depending on what it hits, the current would discharge and the breakdown of the field would release the anti-matter. It would be similar to having the explosive power of a very heavy artillery round in compact form. If feasible, think of something designed with a maximum firepower effect comparable to a 16-inch battleship gun on a turret mount similar in size to that on a Bradley Fighting vehicle. If something like this is actually possible, any vehicle capable of deploying it isn't something you'd want to mess with.

As for why we need them, who knows? Why do we need half of the weapons as deployed by various militaries right now? Most likely it has something to do with the ability to "project force" if desired and "staying ahead of the other guy".

Originally posted by acrux
reply to post by mercanaries3

 

We need plasma guns to shoot plasma, what else, its not like you can just throw it.

Look at a normal gun, you need it to shoot the bullets, you can try throwing the bullets if you like, but it just won't have the same stopping power.

So the reason we need plasma guns, is so you don't have to throw the plasma yourself.

yup, that's might be the reason.

Because if your enemy has them first you're falling behind.

reply to post by mercanaries3


we would need plasma guns so we can just destroy conventional weapons

reply to post by mercanaries3


They penetrate elite or sparten armor lol havent you seen HALO Reach

Just think one man could take on a air craft carrier shoot down bombers, planes, helo's and wipe out a div with one weapon 50 miles range with pin point accuracy SI FI well not for long www.wired.com... from the link

Real-Life Laser Rifle: Army Goal

By David Hambling Email Author
April 27, 2007 |
11:55 am |
Categories: Weapons and Ammo

note this is from 2007 so how far have we come?? navy has one ready for action so they say check this out www.foxnews.com... are you ready for the next gen war???

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by mercanaries3

 

They penetrate elite or sparten armor lol havent you seen HALO Reach

Actually, that's the main benefit of plasma. It's a superheated substance that can pierce through armor, especially static armor (as opposed to something that may stand a chance like ERA).

And yes, I have read a few HALO books. The Covenant ships' plasma cannons are quite effective at penetrating USMC shields

You can make Plasma balls in your own home!
a microwave match and a glass jar.
after you do this you may need a hew microwave.
and a new home. "fire risk"
Utube plasma
Instructional: How to Make Plasma in a Microwave

But how do you get the plasma ball to hit a target?

The benefit of a plasma weapon is basically that it would be extremely effective against personnel carriers, tanks, aircraft and ships. Pretty much anything made of metal.

Take a common plasma cutter for example. When you strike an arc and generate plasma, you are ionizing the air and creating a substance that reaches somewhere around 45,000-degrees fahrenheit. Plenty hot enough to melt through very thick metals.

This works well because plasma is a very good conductor of electricity. With a much more powerful power output than 220-volt and the ability to project that beam outward over vast distances and you would have yourself a pretty convincing death ray.

efficiency.

less shots needed, less ammo wasted, presumably more destruction.