Iraqi laser weapons

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During the Iran-Iraq War, over 4,000 Iranian soldiers sustained injuries due to Iraqi laser systems.

any info, pics regardins the systems used by the iraqi army durning the war?

[ME-262]

Never heard of that! Could the injuries be the result of exposure to laser beams form target designators?

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IRAQI ANTI-PERSONNEL LASERS


1. During the Iran/Iraq War, Iranian soldlers suffered over 4000
documented eye casualtles from Iraqi laser systems, enough to indicate
Iraq's employment of some laser systems specifically for their casuaity-
producing effect. The Iranian casualties showed effects caused by
different types of lasers, which is indicative of the mix of western and
Communist-block systems in the Iraqi inventory. While range and power
considerations make their use more difficult against aircraft than
ground personnel, a soldier possessing such a system will certainly
attempt to use it when under air attack. Unfortunately, the Iranian
fighter/bomber pilots routinely avoided low level tactics over Iraqi
ground troops, thus providing no historical data for assessment.

2. Daytime tracking of aircraft would obviously be easier for the
laser operator, accomplished by binoculars mechanically boresighted to
the laser system. Daytime dazzle effects, however, are reduced due to
the eye's adaption to bright, daytime light. At night, the operator has
a considerably more difficult time aiming the device, but its effect is
several magnitudes higher due to the increased sengitivlty of the night-
adapted eye.

3. Blinding and vision disruption by visible and IR lasers in
third world inventories are primarily low-power sygtems, which limits
their retina damage to a range of about 2NM. The primary threat for
aircrews would be the ND:YAG laser, which is invislble and painless
during exposure, and capable of retina damage to a range of about 3NM.
Iraq, with its extensive mix of western and Communist-block systems, can
be expected to deploy the full spectrum of available tactical lasers.

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John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists said US pilots and their commanders have good reason to fear laser attacks - four thousand Iranian soldiers suffered eye injuries, including blindness, when Iraqi forces swept powerful lasers across their ranks during the Iran-Iraq war.

"It was a lot easier for them to injure those soldiers using a laser than it was to kill them by hitting them with a bullet.

"And the thing is that an injured soldier is a lot more of a burden to a military than a dead soldier is because every injured soldier requires several more to get him back to the hospital."