Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!fiddler@Sun.COM
From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Incredible claims regarding Soviet "death ray"
Keywords: X-ray lasers
Message-ID: <5800@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Apr 89 03:29:47 GMT
References: <5553@cbnews.ATT.COM> <5739@cbnews.ATT.COM> <5765@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Lines: 24
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: fiddler@Sun.COM (Steve Hix)

In article <5765@cbnews.ATT.COM>, jon@june.cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky) writes:
> 
> I find the claims made regarding an *operational* X-ray laser weapon in the
> Soviet ABM system incredible.  I just don't believe this.  Please provide 
> references to a source that we can look up to confirm this story.  I am even
> a bit surprised that the moderator let this pass without comment.
> 
> Last I heard, the X-ray laser had lost a lot of its lustre in the United
> States, and was no longer regarded as promising a practical weapon for 
> the near to middle future.  The x-ray laser phenomenon was apparently 
> demonstrated in some underground nuclear tests, but it was also claimed that
> the brightness of the laser was initially greatly overestimated due to 
> equipment problems.  

A recent Scientific American article (cover article?) described a type
of xray laser that didn't require a nuclear device to pump it.

Something on the order of vaporizing a metal foil with a large charge
of electrical current.  (Sorry, I just scanned the article while waiting
for my wife to finish some shopping.)