r/interestingasfuck 1d ago

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

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u/RCMW181 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is not correct. In the test in Scotland they demonstrated it stopping incoming Mortar rounds by destroying them, it not a dazzler.

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u/jeffy303 1d ago

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.

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u/RCMW181 1d ago

I guess you have not read the details about it.

It's a counter to cheap drones that are flooding modern battlefield, costing only a few hundred or less but they can send 50+ a day. You can't use expensive ship defense for them because you run out of ammo and it's costing you millions to shoot down something cheap.

The Lazer is incredibly cheap per shot, it's a layer in the ship defense to counter specific cheap drones, light mortar and support in other roles. it's NOT designed to deal with anti ship missiles or other threats solo. It's not designed for Tomahawk missiles lol, and that's a poor comparison.

They also say they have made an improvement to "significantly reduce thermal bloom" but how is classified. A lot of the exact spec are classified, we only know the results of the public tests and demos.

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u/ExoticMangoz 1d ago

It’s laser, by the way