re: US Army Testing Machine Gun-Style Laser Weapon That Vaporizes Targets

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Aside from building a more powerful laser in its own right, the military is leaning even further into sci-fi tropes and trying to give the weapon an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect as well. When the lasers strike metal, the plan is that they rapidly accelerate electrons that are strong enough to disrupt nearby electronics.

But while it sounds far-fetched, all of this is possible and feasible with tech that already exists today, Heriot-Watt University engineer Derryck Reid told New Scientist.

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