Pew! Pew! Pew!

[Arbiter]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2551219/Lockheed-Martin-reveals-portable-LASER-weapon-used-the.html

It's only a matter if time before we have TIE fighters 

[artik]

That's cool.... 30KW laser!!!


.50 single 52g round fired from an M2 Machine gun at 880 m/s [1] = 880^2*0.052= ~17,500 J.
For 750 r/min = 12.5 rounds/s , the total output energy of M2 is  218KJ in seconds ~ 220KW
For 6 .50 pack it is ~1,300KW or 1.3 MW which is about two orders of magnitude less than P-51D firepower.

So firing 30KW laser is like firing ~ 2 rounds of .5' per seconds...

WOW... you have frightened me... especially when the armor against laser weights about several orders of magnitude less than against a shell (mirror)

Ok... I think it would be some more time till we have start wars like shots


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning


Edit: Just an additional note

The failed project Skyguard/Nautilus/THEL has a power of about ~2MW and it was able to shoot down small rockets and maybe UAVs... And still it failed and missile based Iron Dome worked much better...

[Arbiter]

If you read the article they are talking about a 100KW laser.  The 30KW was the test vehicle.  Still not the Death Star but neither was the first primitive hand cannons in the late middle ages.  I'm sure longbowmen were very unimpressed with the performance and capabilities of early hand guns but we know how that story ended.   Humans are rather innovative when it comes to refining weaponry.

I think you are not fully appreciating the potential advantages a laser has over conventional weaponry (near instantaneous impact eases targeting, range is substantially increased, etc).  But I grant there are downsides.  Mirrors would only be effective against lasers in the visible spectrum, but you are correct that objects could theoretically be armored to defeat or degrade the effect of a laser beam through special coatings or airborne agents designed to reflect the energy away.

I'll continue to look forward to my TIE fighter.  You can keep your Browning.