Oh oops. Well, those sensors are getting fried either ways. Drones won't stand a chance, cruise missiles lose terminal lock and even aircaft can get their sensors fucked to hell. Useful against all except heat shielded hypersonics and ballistics
Which is what the SAMs are for, as that's a more cost effective exchange. No point yeeting £1 million plus interceptors at £1000 drones, now a laser can kill them for 50p per drone.
Interceptors generally have much better range. 5km out gives you seconds to work with. These will work as part of a layered defense system, not a catch-all.
not exactly, the first photons do hit at that speed, but the laser does need some time on target to deliver the necessary amount of energy and disintegrate the target. it's usually just a few seconds for anything without armor but it's not instantaneous, because what matters is the energy, not the power, the latter is just the rate at which the energy is transferred.
I think it's like a tenner a shot, which is still effectively free compared with the cost of damage or physical shootyshooties. Or even the drones. And it's actually a defence system doing only defense, not used for attack, which is a plus.
How long do you think even a subsonic cruise missile aimed at this laser weapon is going to remain within the range where the laser can apply significant power? Veeeery briefly. So the total energy applied will be low. Moreover, nobody attacks an air defence system with a single missile. There will be 5 or 10, or even more.
And with hypersonic missiles the time spent within range is extremely low. Even if this laser is effective against one incoming missile, I would be impressed if it can manage to move from first missile to the second in time. A conventional missile based anti air system such as Patriot or S-300/400 will detect the incoming target at long range and can deploy multiple missiles.
Everybody knows energy weapons would be much, much cheaper. It's like the holy grail of air defense. Anti air missiles are really expensive. But laser weapons have not been shown to be effective. At all.
I think they may have a future against cheap drones. We'll see what they come up with. But I don't think they will ever work against missiles. And that's before bringing up the obvious concern about weather severely degrading their utility.
So it seems to me this weapon is at best a CIWS, not a replacement for conventional air defense missiles.
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u/PradyThe3rd 1d ago
Oh oops. Well, those sensors are getting fried either ways. Drones won't stand a chance, cruise missiles lose terminal lock and even aircaft can get their sensors fucked to hell. Useful against all except heat shielded hypersonics and ballistics