I'm not arguing with the ability of this weapon to incapacitate a tank, because I have no idea. I hope you agree that you also know nothing about that specific subject. None of us have any real reason to be talking about it at all.
And as was said before, ANY imperfection in the reflective surface -- such as a grain of dirt or grease -- absorbs heat and destroys a mirror's ability to reflect. Even with less than 100W on a greater than 99% reflective surface, the smallest piece of dust will destroy a mirror
Hilariously, you seem to have also missed the memo about Operation Iraqi Freedom. It's not just the Soviets that have tanks anymore! On another twist, "modern war" has missed your memo about its future.
I do agree, but I also remember the fact that we've been promised these superweapons a few too many times. Actually, an imperfection in the surface(dirt, grease), isn't going to stop the mirror, its just going to give the mirror a free cleaning by vaporizing that particle. And some of you have missed the memo about physics, that being that 15 percent is a bathroom mirror, and a proper mirror would be more like 99.9%. And, that the heat which isn't reflected has to
melt the mirror, which, as I said, would be a lot harder with a conductor behind it. So, we have 0.1 percent of your heat here, plus heat dissipation techniques, and this thing is useless. IF it works. If it were so easy, and the air force was chock full of your geniuses, we'd already have this thing. I've read articles from 20-30 years ago saying we'd have these within the next 10 years.
About other people having the tanks in guerrilla warfare, true, some come around, but not many at all, and they account for very few of the casualties, if I'm not very much mistaken. IED's are a far bigger threat, and in my guess, will continue to be. We'll see how modern war goes along, but I think the U.S. military is still trying to fight the cold war, when guerrillas are much harder. And about heating the tank to kill people, more feasible, but still an issue because you must heat the interior of the tank without just burning through. And while aiming for the explosive stuff is fun and workable, I highly doubt that kind of accuracy is possible -- yet. Don't get me wrong, I think directed energy stuff is workable, but not anytime soon. My guess is that directed energy weapons will have to be backed up by mass weapons, in order to take out the countermeasures. You can reflect a directed energy beam back upon the source without damage, but try doing that to a bullet/mortar/rocket. Then directed energy can be used.
Like I said, however, this is moot, as guerrilla warfare has a great inbuilt advantage over any kind of military resistance. If I were to defend a country, I'd say surrender first, and then make them wish they'd never bothered with IED's and other morale-destroying weapons. Unless they're willing to wipe out every citizen in the country (not probable with the U.S. involved), it'd be extremely hard to satisfactorily occupy the country. I should have made this clearer before, but I don't doubt its possibility or capabilities, only its feasibility, and the gung-ho attitude about it, as I think its extremely easily countered, just like everything else.