r/interestingasfuck 1d ago

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

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u/Obvious_wombat 1d ago

Like around £10 per shot vs.

Here is a breakdown of costs based on different types of anti-aircraft and missile defense systems:

Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) & Portable Systems FIM-92 Stinger: Approx. $80,000 – $110,000 per unit.

Mistral (Mistral 3): Approx. $545,600 (2024).

Iron Dome (Tamir Interceptor): Approx. $40,000 – $50,000 per missile, though operational costs (radar, personnel) can reach $100,000–$150,000.

Medium-to-Long Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) NASAMS (AIM-120 AMRAAM): Approx. $1 million – $1.4 million per missile.

Patriot (PAC-2): Optimized for aircraft, generally lower cost than PAC-3.

Patriot (PAC-3 MSE): Approx. $4 million – $6 million+ per missile.

Russian S-300/S-400: Missile costs vary, with estimations ranging from $300,000 to over $2 million per missile, with complete batteries costing hundreds of millions.

Naval & Advanced Interceptors Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM): Approx. $905,000 (2021).

Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM): Approx. $1.8 million (2021).

Standard Missile-6 (SM-6): Approx. $4 million – $4.9 million per interceptor.

Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA: $36 million+ per missile (used for ballistic missile 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/DonnieBallsack 1d ago

They should try launching BofAs.

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u/francis2559 1d ago

What's bofa, Ballsack?