Posted on 11/28/2023 1:27:40 PM PST by TBP
We’re gonna have us a time.
The expensive part is the manufacture and maintenance of the laser.
OF COURSE NOT!!!!
It's not intended to. It's function is to defend against missiles.
Defending against orcs crossing the border is the function of infantry, armour, and artillery.
And armed citizens.
But you knew that ...
Elliot Abrams-our favorite neocon delivering the good news.
The Iron Dome RADARs, command and control systems, and launchers are also expensive to obtain and maintain.
The point here is to reduce the cost per shot and increase the reload rate.
Yes, exactly correct.
Or even better yet just above the Launch Facility...
Drop that puppy back in their laps.
It would be a lot cheaper to arbitrarily fire missiles into Gaza for every rocket launched into Israel from Gaza. You fire an aimless rocket at me, I'll fire aimless missiles back at you regardless of where it lands in your towns. Hamas would quickly give up firing rockets at Israel. Screw the "poor innocents" talk, because they don't care about Israeli babies and women civilians. Unguided rockets are cheap. Cheap Israeli guided missiles could do a lot more damage to Gaza if lobbed at arbitrary targets.
I know they started working on that stuff back in the 80's when I was in the military, I'm sure back then it was in it's infancy.
The gas lasers back then proved too slow, cumbersome, and energy intensive.
The big breakthrough has been solid state or ‘fiber’ lasers with efficient energy consumption and quickly reloadable. Along with AI control, they can acquire and fire on their own.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/israel-tests-groundbreaking-airborne-laser
It does work and has worked for some time. The power requirements are extreme, and the necessary generators are too heavy for deployment in satellites or even most aircraft.
Ground-based or ship-based systems are a natural fit.
There were dozens of video streams a few weeks ago showing these systems taking down HAMAS missiles. The cover story was that these were "lens flares", but the shots are very distinctive and so are the results. It was one-shot-one-kill for every missile targeted.
The rate of fire is not very good. The systems require a lot of time to charge up and to cool down for each shot. The Iron Dome missile swarms got off about 10-20 shots for every laser shot in many of the videos. But IDF ran out of Iron Dome missiles, and they are having trouble getting more of them. They still have electric generators. They need a lot more of these laser systems.
It is still very difficult to stop swarmed missile attacks. But it is possible.
The first laser weapons test I supported was in 1975, as I recall. They have come a long way in nearly 50 years.
Seems to me that President Ronald Raygun brought this up in the 1980’s.
Beam
Bolo Mk1 prototype!
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