Why doesn't the SGC have laser weapons?

[immhotep]

if we don't have one by season 10 i will be very very very angery/disappionted we have a goa'uld in our possesion now who we can force to help us make an energy based weapon for us. I also think that energy weapons are better than our conventional weapons only cause we can have unlimited ammo with energy weapons.

the SGC has a very simple solution, intars.
unlimited ammo,stun setting (like a ZAT), in conventional weapons.

[Ascended Times.2]

I assume even intars would run out of ammo eventually...Although, I concur. I really wish they'd continued with the entire Intar thing, I dunno about the rest of you, but I expected more! I was hoping they'd modify them and make them lethal, there you go, instant energy weapon.

But no, the P-90's a just soooo much more Stargate-ish....*sigh* every time one of my friends sees a P-90 (Damned counterstrike, I barely ever play it though, BF2 is SUCH a better game) He reminds me of Stargate,

In short, no ground based energy weapons becauses P-90's are canon, and no space ones because...

Look a flying pidgeon!

*runs*

[Syera]

Why the SGC uses no lasers...

1: Nobody else in the galaxy uses actual lasers.
2: In grand sci-fi style, the projectiles from the energy weapons we have seen are about as fast as an arrow, which is frightfully slow as compared to what Earth's bullet-using guns can accomplish.
3: Read Shlock Mercenary.

[RA the sun god]

acuually opposed to what some are saying goauld have advantages e.g never run out(well they will in abouy 50000 years so no worrys realy...)and their damage is impresive..

[general ben]

i really feel that we should have at least something soon even if it isn't as powerful as a hatak's weapons we still need something that could complement the nukes cause the wraith seem to be able to intercept those before they get to their target and having some sort of energy weapon would be needed to actually put up a fight against them. of course i would like to see them get one of those guns for the satilite

[Blitz]

Isn't the SGC working on it, I think its Avenger 2.0? Felger the dodgy scientist is working on one...

[general ben]

yeah they are working on it but they don't have one working yet the one in avenger 2.0 blew up if i remember correctly

[Gaterholic]

Well in disclosure Thor DID beam down and say he was just checking out the installation of new asgard designed engines and weapons on board the Prometheus. BUT since we've seen no further signs of said weapon and especially with their conspicous absence from the Daedalus and what Caldwell said, I'm inclined to believe that he came over and was just saying that to help his buddy Jack out (I got the impression the whole thing with Thor was a show put on for the diplomat's benefit).

As for laser weapons, part of the problem is that it's hard to get a significant amount of power onto a target, especially through an atmosphere. Thinks like smoke, fog, humidity, haze, etc all serve to interfere with laser weapons.

It's also hard to make a really high power weapon like you would need in capital ship combat, especially against the more advanced races. Lasers aren't especially power efficient and currently the only way we have to generate large power is via a chemical laser (which are big and bulky) (something like the airborne laser the military is testing for shooting down missiles from a large distance). Solid state lasers with their lower efficiencies produce more heat which much also be disposed of. It's only been recently that the the RL military has figured out a possible way to do it and even then the weapons would be more fighter level.

Key word is "Designed". They probably helped us design our weapon systems, but didn't give us their actual weapons. Probably just nudged our current tech a little and helped us out.

[immhotep]

maybe they gave us a rail gun type weapon and that how we devloped those out of the blue.

[beale947]

We already have rain guns though

[immhotep]

but we didnt before the prommie got thors upgrade.

[Blitz]

Can i also point out using Asgard weapons also uses power, same as the asgard sheilds etc...now if, in Lost City they weere trying to pwoer their sheild they'd use weapons that are projectile, not energy...

(those white shots comming from Prommie are, in my opinion just guns firing, and the colour they are so we can see them)

The reason we may not of seen it in Daedalus is they may be Prommie only, still being bk-made by us humans.

[Gaterholic]

I think we'll get something soon. The "Lucky" finished to all battles with the wraith are going to get old. So if the show wants to show progress, we will get some sort of normal offensive weapon soon. Of course it will have a flaw or drawback, but i can't see them going with the running away stategy, or having outside sources win fights for very long.

[helio9]

maybe they gave us a rail gun type weapon and that how we devloped those out of the blue.

No, those are actually being developped, the main problem being making the launcher durable enough to withstand more than a few shots before wearing out. With SG materials like trinium, they solved it faster, but we'll start seeing them mounted on ships in the next decade or so.

[Avatar28]

No, those are actually being developped, the main problem being making the launcher durable enough to withstand more than a few shots before wearing out. With SG materials like trinium, they solved it faster, but we'll start seeing them mounted on ships in the next decade or so.

I'm personally of the opinion that we may see gauss guns (aka coilguns), at least on a larger scale, first. While they do have their own set of problems, they also have advantages, such as the fact that since the projectile is magnetically levitated, it has no moving parts to wear out. It also doesn't have frictional losses with the rail and few issues with the material flexing and wearing and needing to be replaced frequently.

gauss/coilguns
railguns