Z-z-z-a-p-p-p! Pentagon deploys laser at Iraqi checkpoints

One of my many hobbies, when I can afford it, is building lasers.

http://www.synrad.com/

This link goes to a page where those who care to and can afford to can purchase CO2 lasers from 10 to 400 Watts. It also has a page where you can see high-powered laser effects in action.

Or, for do-it-yourselfers like me, or those with a modest budget:

http://www.altair.org/CO2laser.html

Here are the plans to build one. The plans presented will produce a 10-watt, but can easily be altered to up the power.

As a side note, my 20-watt will cut steel, and I imagine would be effective enough on a vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint.

Have fun!

PS: Do not look directly into the laser beam.....

with your remaining eye.

What kind of laser would the border patrol use safely, and what distance would be involved? Maybethis could be used for military purposes in order to decrease the likelihood that soldiers would be hit by a bullet.

But how to use it safely, depends on whose safety is considered. It's possible there might be other border agents or US citizens in the line of fire, and the beam from the CO2 cannot be seen unless you're wearing polarized goggles.

I would say mount the laser on the back of a pickup with a portable generator to power it. Mount a second laser, like an ordinary laser sight, so that if the red dot you can see is on something you shouldn't shoot.

Now, do we want to capture them alive or just zap them?

Ordinarily I'd say aim for the gas tank if shooting a vehicle, but upon reflection, make sure the vehicle isn't headed toward you. It is possible that if the gas tank goes up, the vehicle might continue towards you, and having a burning vehicle coming at you would of course be worse.

You could aim for the tires, the axle, or a quick burst along the side of the vehicle midway on the engine compartment to cut the pistons, all of which would disable the vehicle. You could just shoot the driver, but then you might have an out of control vehicle heading your way.

My 20 watt should have an effective range of a quarter mile, unobstructed, but if it encounters something before that it will be less. How much less, I don't know, I've never actually fired it at someone. It is possible that someone on the other side of the vehicle could also be endangered. The same holds true for aiming at a person on foot, even more so, as it would take less to go through a person than several layers of metal. We don't want anyone getting hurt from friendly fire.

This assumes of course that your only using 20 watts. You could set up a 400 watt, but due to size and power requirements I don't think it could be made portable. It would have to be more like an emplacement. I've never had the pleasure of seeing a 400 watt in action, but I figure that since 20 watts will cut steel, 400 watts just might vaporize the vehicle, which sounds safer, but then you still have the problem of the beam continuing on and endangering someone else.

Hmmmm, I'll have to think on this some more.

Say a covey of mexicans running accross the border. Or maybe a group of terrorist types who are intent on killing our soldiers. Something stronger might be needed, say, for a boat that is intent on bombing one of our ships, as they did the Cole. Then, I wouldn't care how dire the consequences were for those with a poor excuse for being called "people".

I was just doing a bit of reading, and discovered this Wikipedia article about 'dazzlers'. It's 'just a sub' article, but still has information.