Laser Weapons

[Benm]

Using lasers to blind sensors is nothing new, and can probably be done with already available handheld units in some cases. Something you could do is blind the sensor on a heat seaking missile or even the camera on one that has live visual streaming back to it's operator.

With a bit more power you can actually damage a missile to a point where it's detonator no longer works or it starts to ablate, altering its flightpath, steering any ballistic missile away.

The stuff we don't have yet is the kind that will set tanks on fire, burns holes through them and such.

Obviously you could use a laser to blind a tank driver of fighter pilot, but that would be a warcrime under current conventions. To what degree this will be upheld remains to be seen - i can imagine a scenario where a laser failed to destory a tank but had the 'side effect' of blinding its operator... a bit similar to using dum-dum bullets to destroy equipment but not shoot at personel, where the equipment is a canteen or sidearm carried on the person and you happen to just miss that.

 

[planters]

Obviously you could use a laser to blind a tank driver of fighter pilot, but that would be a warcrime under current conventions.

That is true, but is completely ridiculous. You can shoot him multiple times, cripple him, paralyze him, kill him, blow up his remains and vaporize his plane, but it is a "crime" to blind him.

Lasers will be a selective weapon like EMP weapons and cyber attacks. They will crack things, injure flight control surfaces, burn away antennas and sensors and dazzle/blind pilots.

War crimes? Tell that to the Japanese that ate their Chinese enemies and the loonies in the Mideast that decapitate and drown solders and toss their gays off of buildings. War crimes? Don't make me laugh.

 

[Benm]

War crimes apply mostly to actual wars between real nations - obviously middle eastern militias like ISIS do not respect them and usually even target civilians as primaries.

The reason for these rules as laid out in Geneva and The Hague is to stop the war tactic of purposely maiming/wounding opposing solders instead of killing them. This slows down an army because they have to spend a lot of resources on carrying off and caring for injured soldiers.

This mostly comes down to a ban on landmines that tend to blow legs off people, but is defined broadly. It would also ban things like blinding soldiers, spreading infectious disease, or even shooting them with buckshot rather than bullets cause injury but not death. Shooting with the sole intent of crippling or paralyzing would also fall under this ban, though that's fairly hard to prove when using common ammunition at reasonable distance.