[Mika]

* Waves to the SCP team *

Maybe that twinkling beam could be something cool to see? Or an immensely white burning spot in the target ship with lesser powered reflected beams and white hot burning splashes of metal? Just a couple of suggestions for eye-candy.

[Nuke]

il be amazed when they fire laser beams out of their f22s

[Liberator]

I have no doubt it's coming.  Though I doubt it would even replace the 50 cal cannon.

[General Battuta]

Ironically the best use for lasers on combat aircraft would probably be something like in Command and Conquer Generals (god forbid), where they were used as an anti-missile defense on F-22s.

[SpardaSon21]

Don't forget the Paladins had anti-missile lasers too.

[BloodEagle]

Worst General power ever. Unless you have about two dozen of them, in which case, they're expendable.

[Thaeris]

Funny how they promote development by saying it will "save the lives of warfighters." 50 years from now when you're getting shot at with "lasguns" you might regret such comments... History teaches us that no man's technology remains his alone forever.

-Thaeris

[SpardaSon21]

Lasguns?  I've seen how those things work in the 41st Millennium.  I'd rather have something less sucky, like a coilrifle or railrifle.

[Thaeris]

It's the principle, man! The principle!

-Thaeris

[Liberator]

Lasguns?  I've seen how those things work in the 41st Millennium.  I'd rather have something less sucky, like a coilrifle or railrifle.

The lasguns the Imperial Guard use are underpowered mass produced pop guns designed for a class of soldier deemed less valuable in a ratio of at least 100 to 1 vs a Space Marine.  The tech is sound though as it's the same basic type of gun the SMs use on the Land Raider, only VASTLY more powerful.

[NGTM-1R]

Ironically the best use for lasers on combat aircraft would probably be something like in Command and Conquer Generals (god forbid), where they were used as an anti-missile defense on F-22s.

There are rumors that the B-2 has an onboard laser capable of burning out missile IR seekers...

[Kosh]

Well, for one thing they're not actual beams of light.

The ML-16, Prometheus, and Mekhu/Subach tech descriptions would beg to differ.

The Avenger and the Maxim weren't even plasma cannons.

The Nazis and their "Sun Gun" project was kind of a death ray, though not a real laser. Thankfully for us, the war ended before they could get it off the drawing board. Of all the amazingly advanced stuff they were working on when the war ended, this has got to be the most impressive, if anything just for the sheer coolness factor. Now imagine if they started investing in this stuff much earlier in the war............

[BloodEagle]

I still think that the flour cannon is their best weapon. 

[NGTM-1R]

Of all the amazingly advanced stuff they were working on when the war ended, this has got to be the most impressive, if anything just for the sheer coolness factor. Now imagine if they started investing in this stuff much earlier in the war............

It wouldn't have mattered since Allied engineering was better.

At best, all the Wunderwaffen would have done is caused the first atomic bomb to be deployed over Berlin.

[Bobboau]

which would have been shot down by the jet fighter which would have been in service.

[Scotty]

You don't shoot down bombs, not even today, and we've got ENORMOUSLY better equipment nowadays.

Sure, a couple bombers maybe, but we had three.  One of them would have gotten it, surely .

Also, wouldn't be Berlin.  We didn't A-bomb Tokyo.

[NGTM-1R]

which would have been shot down by the jet fighter which would have been in service.

Which would have been shot down before it could attack since either you accept that the Luftwaffe has been knocked out of the sky and is out of oil, but Overlord was never launched, because y'know massive production advantage in aircraft and possibly the addition of the USN carrier fleet to help cope and bomb the hell out of Germany from the Baltic.

...or it's 1947 and it's the two-thousand-plane raid of B-36s escorted by naval aircraft and P-80s and they all have atomic bombs, if for some inane reason you think they could manage to take the British Isles early in the war. And Germany shall be a radioactive wasteland.

[Kosh]

Which would have been shot down before it could attack since either you accept that the Luftwaffe has been knocked out of the sky and is out of oil,

Depends on what time frame we're talking about. If the jet fighters had been available in '43 (and would have been if it wasn't for Hitler's infamous fighter bomber order) when they actually had enough oil to put sufficient numbers of them in the air, the allied bomber squadrons would have been in a world of hurt given it's 4:1 kill ratio. Its amazing to think though, they had such potential but were often held back by such bad management (if they hadn't persecuted the jews, many of whom were Germany's best nuclear physicists, they might have even had the bomb, who knows). Not many people in the top management positions even saw the potential for jet aircraft (Goering cutback the engine development program to just 3 dozen engineers in 1940) until it was too late.

or it's 1947 and it's the two-thousand-plane raid of B-36s escorted by naval aircraft and P-80s and they all have atomic bombs,

Could the US have had that many a-bombs by '47?

[Thaeris]

I'm going to have to disagree with NGTM-1R on German engineering. But I'll also say that Allied engineering was superb as well. They both had great strengths in certain areas - one or the other outmached one in one front of science while being bested to an extent in another. As a whole, they were very well matched. It's one of the reasons the war lasted as long as it did.

Next thing... That many special weapons in one bombing mission is... perhaps not impossible (you'll never know 'till you try...), but the closest thing to it. If countries like North Korea and Iran, both of which are much less sophisticated than the superpowers (yet are still concievably above the level of scientific knowledge possesed by the major powers of WWII), can't do it now with all the information out there to any great extent, how would the Allies have done that? A nuclear strike is likely, but not like that.

-Thaeris

[NGTM-1R]

Depends on what time frame we're talking about. If the jet fighters had been available in '43 (and would have been if it wasn't for Hitler's infamous fighter bomber order) when they actually had enough oil to put sufficient numbers of them in the air, the allied bomber squadrons would have been in a world of hurt given it's 4:1 kill ratio. Its amazing to think though, they had such potential but were often held back by such bad management (if they hadn't persecuted the jews, many of whom were Germany's best nuclear physicists, they might have even had the bomb, who knows). Not many people in the top management positions even saw the potential for jet aircraft (Goering cutback the engine development program to just 3 dozen engineers in 1940) until it was too late.

The problem with that scenario is that, had it happened, the Glouster Meteor and P-80 would have been rushed through the final stages of development, be ready by late 1944, and both were better aircraft with safer, more powerful engines.

Also there were key problems with the German jets. They left distinctive blast marks on the runways, and required concrete runways (difficult to repair, natch) of a certain length. There was an Allied plan to close all jet airfields by successive heavy bomber raids if necessary. It never was, but daily visits by 100 B-17s/B-24s per airfield was envisioned and possible. Germany could not have produced enough jets to stop it. They could make the efforts of 8th Air Force costly, but they never had the ability to truly win a battle of attrition.

Could the US have had that many a-bombs by '47?

The scenario I describe is basically the one spelled out by US warplans circa the Battle of Britain. Having no further need to equip the RAF (who used about 30% of all US aircraft that came off the production lines), and having skipped B-17/B-24 production and headed directly to transoceanic bombers, further production efforts could and would have been devoted to the atomic bomb. The number sounds larger than it really is, as well, because it wasn't hard to build 2000 B-36s in WW2 America, and the buildup would not have been interfered with by combat losses. Assume the B-36s are ready for production by 1944. Six months to build them all. It takes until mid-1947 to build all the a-bombs.