I want one.......................
“DragonFire” — now we’re talking.
That’s so much better than “Iron Dome.” Who wants a huge, heavy dome over them (which could fall and squash you like a bug) when you can have fire-breathing dragons covering you?
Just fly the drones on cloudy day’s?
“...does not require any ammunition.”
“Because of the energy needed to power it, it is expected to be fitted to warships of the Royal Navy, or to be used as permanent air defence platforms on land.”
no ammunition required beyond a very big generator.
Some chemical lasers have an exhaust so corrosive it must be captured after/during firings. The question remains, what do you do with the container of corrosive exhaust?
soon ... it will be almost impossible to protect a president. Imagine one of these being use from orbit
(using the system’s death ray.)
Charged particles Mr. Muntz?
Da Death Beam.
Well, that’s going to give the folks at Raytheon Missile Systems some concern. And that’s because they’re charging a bit more than £10 a shot for this baby.
The track and burn time on the drone is not comparable to that necessary to take down a hypersonic missile.
Sadly, powered by the ind turbines and solar panels.
Fires once every year, if it’s not too cold outside…
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
A bit of hyperbole there... The US Navy deployed a 30kW laser a decade ago, and currently has a 60kW laser installed on at least 1 ship, with the ability to scale up to 150kW. But none of these give the capability to reliably kill a supersonic, let alone hypersonic missile. The next generation will be in the 300 kW+ range, but we are years, maybe decades away from solving some of the problems involved in advanced applications like hypersonics.
Bkmk
Hat tip to Britain
Big issue will be the true lifetime cost, as in how much will it cost to replace what needs replacing after 1,000 shots.
That’s what killed enthusiasm for railguns: yeah, the electricity is cheap, but the rails only last for a few shots.
“ The weapons platform, which military chiefs say will revolutionise the battlefield of the future, could one day be used to annihilate fighter jets, warships and hypersonic missiles.”
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Really? I’m not holding my breath waiting for THIS “weapons platform” to accomplish ANY of that.
bkmk