Re: Laser protection

Wasn't it MacFraggin who wrote:

>The tactical consequence I see in effective anti-laser mirrors would
>be that lasers become a lot less useful. You'd have to aim at
>vulnerable spots like, for instance, engine nozzles, which would make
>maneuvering a lot more im****tant, and also significantly reduce combat
>distances (to both reduce lightspeed lag and actually be able to get
>on an evading opponent's tail). No more exchanging broadsides at
>300.000km.
>Also, lasers would lose a lot of their value as Point Defense weapon:
>coat your missiles and kinetic slugs in sparkling ****niness, and the
>PD laser will just make for a beautiful prism lightshow (exaggerating
>a bit here but you get the idea).

I can't find the equations for the dispersion of laser beams, but I 
would have thought that at a distance of 300km the beam would so wide 
that it wouldn't make an effective weapon even against black targets.

A laser is useless as a point defence weapon against unsilvered kinetic 
slugs. You take just as much damage from a kinetic slug that's been 
melted by a laser as from a solid slug.

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure