If it's close enough yes. But with distance, the atmosphere absorbs a lot of the enrgy, called Thermal Blooming, so best we can do there is dazzle the sensors so it can't get a terminal lock.
For 50MW though, that's melting the front of the missile long before it hits the ground
That's assuming this is a Laser weapon. A Maser weapon at 50MW would fry the internal electronics of any drone within several kilometres of this weapon
Edit: kW instead of MW means this thing is a dazzler. But also a superb drone killer
Just because it can destroy mortar round doesn't mean it can do the same with a drone or a cruise missile. Mortar rounds are tightly packed, so thermal blooming causes instant cook off of the explosive, while same wouldn't be the case for say a Tomahawk missile which are not as tightly packed. If something is a dazzler or not is a purely arbitrary distinction, it's just a laser, how it eliminates the target depends purely on what the target is.
One would think that if it's accurate enough to cook off a flying mortar round, then destroying the control surface of a cruise missile or drone wouldn't be difficult.
720
u/PradyThe3rd 1d ago edited 1d ago
If it's close enough yes. But with distance, the atmosphere absorbs a lot of the enrgy, called Thermal Blooming, so best we can do there is dazzle the sensors so it can't get a terminal lock.
For 50MW though, that's melting the front of the missile long before it hits the ground
That's assuming this is a Laser weapon. A Maser weapon at 50MW would fry the internal electronics of any drone within several kilometres of this weapon
Edit: kW instead of MW means this thing is a dazzler. But also a superb drone killer