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[Rolepgeek]

I think we're thinking about different energy levels, here...

[Tack]

It turns them into FIREBALL GUNS!?!

[iceball3]

It turns them into FIREBALL GUNS!?!

"Blooming". That is, most of the energy is to be absorbed by the particle cloud itself and not it's target. What you end up with is hot spots in the air where the laser gets dissipated, due to said blooming induced by the particles.

[Catmeat]

Weaponise their defences?
Get a fan and blow the hot dust at the enemy.
Also I dont think rebreather is the word you needed Tack.
Probably gas mask or some such. I dont think the concentration needed for breathing in a rebreather can be managed while also in battle.

[iceball3]

Weaponise their defences?
Get a fan and blow the hot dust at the enemy.

That's even more silly than saying something like "Set off a thermobaric or otherwise explosive grenade in front of your enemy, then blow the hot air into their faces with a big fan." Think about it for a moment.

[HAMMERMILL]

Any battlefield with megawatt lasers will have regular old ballistic weapons anyways.

So the enemy tanks that have this multi-layered thermo-resistance ceramics and shiny energy reflective Nichrome is really hard to kill with the 700khw lasers, but still vulnerable to the 50mm HEAT rounds from an autocannon.

[Rolepgeek]

...If I remember right, ceramic armor is one of the better defenses against shaped charge weapons, as when it gets hit, it fractures into a bunch of fragments that disrupt the stream of molten copper.

Furthermore, you can have armor underneath the anti-laser armor that's designed to deal with kinetic penetrators and explosive weapons, if the outer armor isn't tough enough in itself.

[Amperzand]

Would ERA be very effective against lasers?

[Parsely]

Would ERA be very effective against lasers?

No. The whole point of ERA is that it detonates the projectile at a range that makes it ineffective.

[Rolepgeek]

Would ERA be very effective against lasers?

No. The whole point of ERA is that it detonates the projectile at a range that makes it ineffective.

Well, uh, sorta but not really?...it screws with the penetrating jet so that it's not as coherent, and counters some of the force of the explosion simply by it's own. Also messes up orientation and force of kinetic energy projectiles. Your video is an Active Protection System, which is like point defense, which as far as I know, tries to detonate the projectile long before it gets close enough to present a credible threat. Standoff/slat armor is the type that wants it to detonate just a bit too early.

But yeah, no, it would be horribly ineffective against lasers. You'd want Vaporizing Reactive Armor or something.

Futuretech versions of all of these exist, of course. Nanobot shield systems could function fairly well as a means to carry some vapor or something at a distance from the vehicle/to harden against incoming impacts like liquid armor is supposed to, and thus detonate the projectile at standoff distance. Point defense is obvious

[Parsely]

Would ERA be very effective against lasers?

No. The whole point of ERA is that it detonates the projectile at a range that makes it ineffective.

Well, uh, sorta but not really?...it screws with the penetrating jet so that it's not as coherent, and counters some of the force of the explosion simply by it's own. Also messes up orientation and force of kinetic energy projectiles. Your video is an Active Protection System, which is like point defense, which as far as I know, tries to detonate the projectile long before it gets close enough to present a credible threat. Standoff/slat armor is the type that wants it to detonate just a bit too early.

Sure. APS is just one example of anti-HEAT ERA.

[Catmeat]

Get a steel rod, paint one end in a 50/50 mix of mercury and yellow #12 then drill a hole into your slate tile ok now it gets complicated while playing micheal myers theme tune on a yew pan flute aim your coms unit signal laser at your designated target, throw the rod at the ground in front of you, look through the tile with your left eye. The crew will become very confused, at this moment press the call button on your coms unit and the main battleship should have scanned the ship for your odd materials and will not disintegrate your position as you float in space just wait for your crew to snag you.
If you cant find slate in your nearest systems you can easily substitute it with cardstock, however its not waterproof.

Or laser

[Tack]

ERA.

If I'm not mistaken, the tank just lobbed a claymore at an offending projectile.
That is not what I expected APS to be...

Edit: re: big science fallacies- laser guns shooting in bursts.
I assume star-wars style lasers could never actually happen?

[Rolepgeek]

ERA.

If I'm not mistaken, the tank just lobbed a claymore at an offending projectile.
That is not what I expected APS to be...

Edit: re: big science fallacies- laser guns shooting in bursts.
I assume star-wars style lasers could never actually happen?

As lasers? No. As plasma bolts? Sure. Theoretically.

But yeah, current active protection is basically launching a counter-explosive. Which I guess is technically sort of like ERA, but it's not actually ERA. It's not armor, and it's more like proactive than reactive.

[Tack]

Well ERA has been blown out of the water by modern composite anyway, hasn't it?
Even before that, depleted uranium, which was probably a dumb idea.