Posted on 01/20/2024 4:46:23 AM PST by FarCenter
While broadly touted as the future of shipboard point and missile defense, laser weapons have been glaringly absent in the US-led coalition strikes against Iranian-supplied drones and missiles used by Houthi forces in Yemen to attack commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea.
This month, Breaking Defense reported that Rear Admiral Fred Pyle, the US Navy’s director of surface warfare requirements, has expressed frustration with the current pace of laser weapon system development.
...
Lara Seligman and Matt Berg mention in a December 2023 Politico article that the US Navy has used Standard SM-2 missiles costing US$2.1 million in the Red Sea to destroy Houthi drones worth just $2,000, raising concerns about the cost-effectiveness and unsustainability of this kind of warfare.
Seligman and Berg note that while US destroyers can use their five-inch guns with airburst rounds for anti-drone defense, they can only hit targets ten nautical miles away, which may be dangerously close.
While they say that US destroyers can use Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles to hit targets closer than five nautical miles, the missiles cost around US$1.8 million per shot.
Seligman and Berg point out that US destroyers’ last line of defense, the 20-millimeter Phalanx Close-in Weapons System (CIWS), can hit targets inside one nautical mile, but the closer the drone gets to the target, the higher the chances of a successful strike.
Given that high cost-per-shot ratio, the problems would undoubtedly be magnified if the US gets into a conflict with China over Taiwan, with China having much greater production capabilities and advanced drones and missiles than the Houthis in Yemen.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
What a racist! He should be happy/proud of the diversity, inclusion and equity of the program and shut up!
More of your usual anti-American Chi-Comm propaganda
US will develop laser systems far more advanced than anything China can make or steal
be patient, grasshopper
(Why aren’t you posting any Asia Times articles about China’s imploding economy? lol)
We should have awesome laser beam weapons by now!
The Neocons always figured that Big, Fat, US ships would be enough to deter little pipsqueaks like the Houthis, so why waste their time developing decent defensive weapons?
And, as it is, understanding lasers requires understanding PHYSICS and it’s hard to see how anyone in US schools could be learning physics, when our schools have become...
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4211616/posts
So, probably, best that we pull out of that part of the world and see if the Biden Administration can cut a deal with some of the ADULTS on the scene (India, Russia, and/or China), in order to keep our supply lines open.
Real problems have to be fixed. Until the US drops the woke and DEI we will not achieve excellence again.
Wow, the America-haters are up early this morning
Go piss up a rope fool.
“Wow, the America-haters are up early this morning”
Wow, the Biden/Trudeau CHEERLEADERS are also up early this morning. Don’t you guys get a day off once in while?
The O’Biden’s administration willingness to not use our most advanced tech and invoke only tepid force on militant muslims shows me that this is just kabuki.
The O’Biden administration wants this to escalate for local political reasons which include the possibility of declaring martial law sometime around late October or early November. This would include cancelling the election. The timing is the critical factor. Of course if DJT is assassinated the need for such extreme action is removed.
The largest blind spot in developing these "future" weapons is that they are FUTURE. As with some things the DoD contracts for delivery in 2030.... Artists' representations are announced as if hard news, when these are a kind of planning called "wishful thinking."
This is the national defense version of what we 2A conservatives have always known locally. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."
An announced multi-million dollar weapons system years away will not function well against tens of thousands of cheap drones. Salvo equations are not being considered.
of note.. is the weakness of these dinghys against armed vessels.
I’ve wondered how effective these laser weapons would be in a combat environment with a lot smoke in the air.
The headline has nothing to do with the story. The editor just decided that since “glaring blind spot” kinda sort related to the optics involved in generating a laser beam that he just had to include that pseudo-pun.
The headline is stupid. What is happening is not a “glaring blind spot”. It is, as you say, another typical scenario where future capabilities are misreported as current functionality.
Agreed. Might I expand? So-o-o many of today's headlines are stupid. The media with its push polls and product placement and writing about "future" things seems to be scrambling to sustain itself, as we just read how more and more "journalists" are being laid off. So many words, so often "stupid." Best wishes.
“An announced multi-million dollar weapons system years away will not function well against tens of thousands of cheap drones. Salvo equations are not being considered.”
Along that train of thought I have many times thought that the military should order 500 A10 Thunderbolts instead of 5 F-35s. Multiple targets in a conflict are more likely to succeed vs one lucky shot that terminates one’s air attack.
This "many" overwhelming the "one" is a story from the time of David and Goliath through to the Star Wars film fantasy of the 'battle star.' It is in our stories, as in our life experiences. The Swamp Fox against the British. And, said to retell, the tale of Vietnam, in part. It is certainly the lesson of nineteen years in Afghanistan.
--- "Multiple targets in a conflict are more likely to succeed vs one lucky shot that terminates one’s air attack."
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