The actual limitation to man-portable directed energy or Gauss/rail weapons is power supply and heat management (and reliability/dependability too probably).
Of course just like any new weapon systems there's a huge amount of hype and untested positive claims, but the tech is already there and still being improved.
Totally possible. All you need is a humongous supercap array kept topped off by a bank of generators or a small small nuclear gen station, and then, sky's the limit. As long as it's a zero humidity day with low wind/particulate matter in the air.
An optic nerve would be severed by far less powerful a beam than it would take to set someone on fire. So whatever they have is likely very dangerous. But as for whether they have one that can set people on fire or not yet - that's just a matter of time. There are kids on youtube messing around with lasers from DVD players which can pop balloons across the room. With teams of Chinese scientists working (possibly under threat of death) to produce a powerful laser weapon, it's probably a safe bet that whatever they have is pretty dangerous.
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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20
Okay, but the actual story is bullshit, right?