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Israel rolls out laser defense system

reuters.com

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Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#91

Post by nine_k »

sandworm101 wrote: post #21

I will believe it when I see it. Focusing that much light on a small moving object, through layered and moving air, with an intensity to burn through metal would be an achievement. Burning through enough of that metal to degrade a falling rocket (as opposed to during boost phase of flight) is even harder. For all the talk about cost reduction, have a look at what realworld laser armor costs. Painting the nosecone of…

AFAIK far enough infrared is not very efficiently reflected by white paint or by metallic foil. If you can lower the efficiency of the cover layer from 99.9% to, say, 80%, this may be enough to degrade the mirror layer, create a dark spot or a cloud of plasma. After that most of the radiant energy will be consumed by that spot, it will overheat and degrade everything around it, while also changing the aerodynamics of the object enough to veer it way off course.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#92

Post by guerrilla »

yuvalr1 wrote: post #88
guerrilla wrote: post #75

Lots of news about Israel today. Amnesty International just released a new report condemning Israel as an apartheid state.[1] 1. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-...

What a great way to start an off topic flame war... By the way, you could have shown Israel's response to this report as well: https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-attacks-delusional-amnes...

Hopefully people here can do better than get into a flame war when provided with context for weapons technology news and if they can't then they should be down-voted and possibly flagged.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#93

Post by [deleted] »

nickff wrote: post #70
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.

> " 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." The problem is that the Palestinians are a heterogeneous group. Even if the Palestinian government makes a 'peace' deal with the Israelis, other Palestinians opposed to the deal can 'break' it by shooting off a few cheap rockets. Further complicating the…

[deleted]

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#94

Post by bawolff »

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.

An arms race generally benefits the side with more money.

> 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.

There's been plenty of attempts to have peace conferences and what not. There's a wide gap between attempting and actually getting something to stick.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#95

Post by endymi0n »

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.

Indeed, most people are very surprised that a stick of dynamite has just the energy equivalent of a Snickers bar. Spread the energy release over more than just a few microseconds and you have a very different profile.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#96

Post by flyinglizard »

sandworm101 wrote: post #21

I will believe it when I see it. Focusing that much light on a small moving object, through layered and moving air, with an intensity to burn through metal would be an achievement. Burning through enough of that metal to degrade a falling rocket (as opposed to during boost phase of flight) is even harder. For all the talk about cost reduction, have a look at what realworld laser armor costs. Painting the nosecone of…

My understanding is this will be used right next to the Gaza border meaning it will get the rockets during boost phase. Iron Dome will still exist at the other end of the course to shoot down the remaining rockets.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#98

Post by sharikous »

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.

Almost all rocket attacks come from Gaza. The remaining ones are from Syria (actually Iranian Al Quds units stationed there) and Lebanon (the Palestinian Iranian-funded Hizbollah).

The option is there to conquer and reoccupy Gaza. It would be terribly expensive in terms of human lives and the occupation will be very difficult to keep, but it would solve the problem of the rockets.

Ditto for Lebanon and Syria. From the 2006 war, often considered a failure for Israel, there were nonetheless very very few rocket attacks from Lebanon.

So defensive weapons could also be a perverse incentive, since they discourage military action that is more direct and more effective for the long term.

It's a very difficult problem. People are motivated to launch rockets because of grievances and because they see an advantage to do so. Israel has rewarded these kinds of attacks more then one time (e.g. loosening the blockade on Gaza) and the world has become quite convinced with the Palestinian narrative.

Israel's options are limited to defensive weapons (with a lot of problems long-term) and offensive ones (very expensive in terms of lives, government popularity, PR, etc..)

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#100

Post by jimnotgym »

nickff wrote: post #70
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.

> " 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." The problem is that the Palestinians are a heterogeneous group. Even if the Palestinian government makes a 'peace' deal with the Israelis, other Palestinians opposed to the deal can 'break' it by shooting off a few cheap rockets. Further complicating the…

> other Palestinians opposed to the deal can 'break' it

Only if Isreal reacts by declaring the peace deal with one group dead because another group fired rockets. It takes two to tango, as they say.

If a gunman from Canada fired into the USA, the USA is unlikely to consider it a declaration of war and start nuking Canada!

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