"OK, this is cool......." Topic

….and impressive!

link

I can see bird hunters using this to great advantage. Supper is found, downed and cooked right there in the field. I wonder what kind of power requirements it has and what the next defense will be. Ablative/reflective coatings, flying slower/lower so the radar doesn't pick it up, stealth coatings, etc.

Will need a few of them at all our airports.

Wonder how many drones can be engaged at a time? Tactic is to swarm 20-30 drones and overwhelm enemy defenses…..some will get thru. Cheaper than sending one expensive munition downrange….

I wonder what that laser would do to a person?

Hmmm, can't see the beam like on TV shows, and in the movies, so I remain skeptical.

How do we know they just didn't turn off the engines of those drones, or hit them with a shotgun-like blast?

Of course, if this really works, I'll want a personal one to eliminate mosquitoes and pesky co-workers/other people too.

There's a company working on a laser based mosquito zapper. From the demo, it worked really well up to about two feet.

I doubt the 100% accuracy claim.

It was like they said Iron Dome was 86% successful in 2019 but then it turned out it was only successful in stopping 86% of 240 missiles the interceptors HIT. 90 other missiles never reached Israel due to inflight failure and a further 360 missiles were UNACCOUNTED FOR and smacked somewhere in Israel!

I don't believe the Israelis generally brag about things they can do.

I believe that these kind of marketing gimmicks are more a bluff to present a deterrent when there might not be one.

It's like they threaten Iran with a strike but are yet to engage in one despite Iran committing all kind of nuclear related shenanigans. The Israelis happily murder Iranian nuclear scientists and cyber strikes against Iranians but don't engage in a military strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Now remember this is a country that gladly launches strikes against opponents as far as Sudan or Tunisia. So why not Iran?

The answer as to why is simple: the Israelis can't pull off a decapitation strike against Iranian nuclear facilities like they did against Iran in 1980 and Syria in 2007.

So they threaten to attack hoping the bluff will deter the Iranians.

I suspect this laser and it's 100% accuracy are another example of this.

It was like they said Iron Dome was 86% successful in 2019 but then it turned out it was only successful in stopping 86% of 240 missiles the interceptors HIT. 90 other missiles never reached Israel due to inflight failure and a further 360 missiles were UNACCOUNTED FOR and smacked somewhere in Israel!

Why fire at the 90 that didn't reach Israel? As for the unaccounted 360 my understanding is that Iron Dome evaluates the flight path of the rocket and only fires at those that are evaluated to hit populated areas. SO if they are unaccounted for they must not have hit populated areas.

I'd expect a laser to be very accurate, but reading between the lines this is for toasting small cheap civilian models – the kind that get turned into ersatz grenade carriers. I bet even a small military spec drone or big technical civilian done might be a difficult proposition for it.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Rafeal has more of an eye on the 'civilian' market for the system! I could imagine that there are all number of secure sites that might want such a system.

*Quick Google search*

Rafael hailed the system as an 'innovative end-to-end solution' which can provide 'border and critical military and civilian site protection'.

Apparently it can also jam drone controls and stop them transmitting imagery! And the MOD ordered one after the Gatwick fiasco.

Lasers are affected by weather conditions such as fog and rain as well as smoke. So yes I doubt 100% accuracy claim.

Israel's weather is pretty much perfect for laser weapons, then.

I bet even a small military spec drone or big technical civilian done might be a difficult proposition for it.

Although it might be able to fry sensors, antennae, lenses, fittings, pitot tubes, etc. There are lots of little bits on the outside of a plane that would put it in a world of hurt if they were burnt off.