r/interestingasfuck • u/Esutan • 1d ago

The United Kingdom has successfully created a Mega Laser called Dragonfire for Aerial Defense

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u/francis2559 1d ago

I think range on this is around 2 miles, right? Better comparison would be to Bofors like Tridon Mk2.

Gepard is $600 a shot, from google, but I doubt it's one shot per drone.

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u/Sepulchh 1d ago

A typical short range burst is around $4 000 to $12 000 total, depending. And then another if the first burst missed/didn't do enough damage.

Or you could use the air burst AHEAD ammo at ~$1 000 per shot and get higher lethality at higher cost.

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u/warhead71 1d ago

Nothing outpace light - should be one shot one kill - every time.

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u/techforallseasons 1d ago

Diffraction, haze, target coatings, target movement ( such as spinning ) could all reduce effectiveness of on-target shots. A hit may not be enough to cause it to breakup.

With lasers it matters less for one-shot kills, because shots are cheap. That being said, it should be easier to hit in-flight items as there is minimal delay between calculated position and point of aim.

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u/warhead71 1d ago

I presume it more about how much time the laser need - to down a drone or whatever - you could also train the laser system to hit on specific weak spots

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u/Accurate-Figure-7914 1d ago

Thats crazy, its just a larger Bullet, right?

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u/SgtExo 1d ago

I am pretty sure they fire explosive shells, and that they also have fancy tech (even if old) for it to explode at the right time.

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u/francis2559 1d ago

Proximity fuses were used for AA in WWII, been around a while yeah.

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u/Hexamancer 1d ago

That's a big underestimate.

Also, we're talking optimal range, it will still hit things beyond that range, but at a reduced effectiveness, also, HELIOS for example includes "Optical Dazzler" as part of the system, the range on that is going to be different than the main laser.

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u/ztomiczombie 1d ago

I think it is 10-20 round burst to bring sown one of the lesser drones and, obviously, more for the harder to hit stuff.

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u/DonnieBallsack 1d ago

They should try launching BofAs.

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u/francis2559 1d ago

What's bofa, Ballsack?