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Israel rolls out laser defense system

reuters.com

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Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#71

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

jimnotgym wrote: post #39

...and then what. What will they do when the rockets get faster, shinier, more erratic in flight...or any of the other things mentioned on this thread? I'm not going to pretend I have the solutions to the Arab Isreali conflict, but this is at best temporary. My best guess is the long term solution (if there is ever one attempted) will be more related to why people are motivated to launch rockets at their neighbours.

These rockets are low tech. They only get through because of sheer numbers. Using lasers makes it harder to overwhelm with numbers.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#72

Post by pasabagi »

Miraste wrote: post #35
pasabagi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MAD was a dumb idea in the first place. Everybody has known, since the first world war, that a major power confrontation is very likely to end your nation, even if you win . The French were so demographically destroyed they literally could not raise an army to fight in the second world war. The British were so broke their empire collapsed. The Russian empire, the Austrian empire, the Ottoman empires all collapsed int…

> he French were so demographically destroyed they literally could not raise an army to fight in the second world war. This isn't true at all. The French army at the start of WWII was over 5 million men, one of the largest in the world. It suffered from bad luck and being led by morons, but it certainly existed. Per your other point, WWII made the US and the USSR global superpowers for half a century, and the US espe…

I was exaggerating, but the demographic slump that happened as a result of WW1 was a problem for french military planners, which is why a large portion of their army were reservists or badly trained.

Per your other point, you're shifting the terrain of the discussion. WW1 was almost a pure losers war, and yet, most of the same states engaged in WW2. That's the crazy decision. WW2, on the other hand, had relative winners (although I think the US would have done well regardless, and the USSR got to be a global superpower (which it was already) at an appalling cost).

Another thing that bothers me about the whole 'MAD prevented the cold war from going hot' is that none of the generals at the time thought like that. People didn't really start thinking about nuclear weapons as anything other than just big bombs until well into the cold war. That's why MacArthur advocated their use in China.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#73

Post by towe12301923 »

> "If we can intercept a missile or rocket with an electrical pulse that costs a few dollars, we will essentially neutralize the ring of fire that Iran has set up ... This new generation of air defence can also serve our friends in the region, who are also exposed to grave threats from Iran and its proxies.

This is admirable. Instead of playing the typical offense-first arms race, they are in a defense-first technology race. Its non-violent and the technology and skills will benefit the entire country. I hope they eventually win the war just by building a far better country that people want to immigrate into instead of attack.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#74

Post by skinnymuch »

towe12301923 wrote: post #73

> "If we can intercept a missile or rocket with an electrical pulse that costs a few dollars, we will essentially neutralize the ring of fire that Iran has set up ... This new generation of air defence can also serve our friends in the region, who are also exposed to grave threats from Iran and its proxies. This is admirable. Instead of playing the typical offense-first arms race, they are in a defense-first technolo…

I don’t think people want to immigrate to the Gaza Strip. Under any conditions.

Or if Gaza is not Israel to you. I think many people in Gaza would love to immigrate to Israel.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#76

Post by CapitalistCartr »

cobookman wrote: post #48
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would need to pack the energy of a stick of dynamite (1 lb explosive weight) into a short burst of light.

Would it? If the laser is able to focus on the rocket for multiple seconds. Then it'd just need to pack a fraction of that energy over a sustained duration. Which sounds reasonable.

The rocket is moving at perhaps mach 4+. The laser has to strike a singular spot. So holding focus for multuple seconds is an as-yet-unsolved problem. Of course, hitting an incoming missile at all is at the edge of current capability.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#78

Post by skinnymuch »

jlawson wrote: post #55
hadlock wrote: post #32

I'm curious where the tipping point is, where the military response exceeds the financial cost of a political response. It's one thing to have tensions simmering on both sides of a border, it's another that one side feels wronged and is lobbing bombs over the fence. The fact that they're having to develop a laser defense system to defend against lobbed bombs seems like it's time to reevaluate political solutions.

Quoted post unavailable.

The Palestinians? They have not made it clear at all. TMany people living in Gaza, one of the poorest, unsafe, strips of land with the least amount of autonomy or basic human respect given, don’t have time and energy to focus on a goal of utterly conquering and pushing Israel to the sea. I assume this implies killing all Israelis too?

Quite a statement to make about the vast majority of Gaza citizens that can barely survive.

—

> Either you can afford the defenses you need to exist, or you can't and you stop existing.

In no world could Palestine ever stop Israel from existing either. Like: - Kurds or Armenians can’t wipe out Turkey. - Yemenese rebels (Houthi) can’t wipe out Saudi Arabia. - Uyghur’s or Tibet or Hong Kong or Taiwan can’t wipe out China. - Ukraine or Georgia or Bosnia or Crimea can’t wipe out Russia. - Kosovo can’t wipe out Serbia. - Pakistan can’t wipe out India. - IRA or Ireland can’t wipe out Britain.

—-

Israel is a beautiful place. I enjoyed Tel Aviv quite a bit. I certainly don’t want Israel going anywhere :)

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#79

Post by cronix »

manishsharan wrote: post #24
yehoshuapw wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while missiles can be built to have irregular routes, this is more important for missile-based defense. there, with the distances and speeds involved it will cause the interceptor to need to counter the irregularities, which will make it need to also be much more advanced. small changes in thrust however (at a later time - and thus higher speed) can cause only so much of a change. but more importantly - light-based i…

A missile design may evolve to have the original missile to intelligently decompose,upon detection, into multiple smaller missiles each with a randomized target and path. The parent missile could focus on reaching as close as possible to target rich area with stealth and upon inevitable detection, unleash smaller missiles with randomized paths. If the cost of missiles keep going down, I can see aggressors firing seve…

That's been around for quite a long time, at least the late 1960's.

> A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is almost invariably associated with intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying thermonuclear warheads, even if not strictly being limited to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#80

Post by quickthrower2 »

hanoz wrote: post #22
pasabagi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MAD was a dumb idea in the first place. Everybody has known, since the first world war, that a major power confrontation is very likely to end your nation, even if you win . The French were so demographically destroyed they literally could not raise an army to fight in the second world war. The British were so broke their empire collapsed. The Russian empire, the Austrian empire, the Ottoman empires all collapsed int…

The difference being that with nuclear mutually assured destruction, the actual leaders are assured of their own personal destruction.

Are they? Who has the best bunkers? Who has dedicated aircraft you can live in permanently?
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