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Israel rolls out laser defense system

reuters.com

101–110 of 250 posts

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#101

...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.

There’s hardly an Israeli Arab conflict any more. Peace was achieved in large through force projection and mutual interests; these technologies are an important part of both.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#102

...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 "advanced" rockets will be more costly, which means your more limited on how many you can afford to fire. Thus Israel can intercept these "advanced" rockets with other solutions: Iron Dome, Arrow 2, Arrow 3, and David's Sling. The Iron Beam is the low cost per intercept solution, meant to intercept cheap unguided ballistic rockets.

Other people on here have suggested that tin foil will do as protection, or metal polish for that matter. Im guessing this will make no difference in the number of rockets at all

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#103
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " 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!

There never been a common Palestinian leadership or universally accepted institutes, and this only became worse since 2006 Gaza withdrawal by Israel.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#104
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The thing about your list of conflict is that all of them involve a minority against an overwhelming majority and fighting over distinct territories. This is about two populations roughly equal in size fighting over the same territory.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#106
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe he was complaining about the lack of context you provided. The dropping of the typical (and false) apartheid accusation without providing the response.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#107

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…

> Painting the nosecone of a rocket white, or coating it with reflective foil costs next to nothing but is remarkably effective.

What information are you basing this statement on?

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I assume this implies killing all Israelis too? Yes. > Quite a statement to make about the vast majority of Gaza citizens that can barely survive. Talk to them. Personally, I think that the reason this conflict is so misunderstood in the West is that you guys are just too distant from the cultural norms of the region, and literally can't believe that millions of people could openly and unapologetically be pro-genoc…

I agree with this. I find it amazing that the world expects Israeli leadership to ignore the stated goal of Hamas is to eradicate Israel[1].

Sometimes I ask people to imagine what it would be like if the inhabitants of a large Native American reservation began shelling a nearby US city after openly stating they will not rest until the USA is wiped from the earth.

I’m choosing the Native American hypothetical advisedly because I think there are some parallels in the displacement history.

To further the analogy, imagine now that the USA is the size of New Jersey, surrounded by states that have attempted also to wipe them out, and that Americans have been enslaved, persecuted, and harried across the globe for thousands of years since leaving New Jersey under duress the most recent time.

I’m not a Zionist per se but I get it, and yet I think the formation of modern Israel had a cardinal sin in it, and now Israel is in a bind - threats aside, assuming there was a miraculous peace, allowing Palestinians to participate in Israeli politics _as is in many senses right_ would likely result in a situation in which the Hebrew people lose self-determination and risk being eradicated once again.

I think, in response to the most recent Jewish holocaust, the founding mentality of the modern state of Israel was ‘we don’t care what anyone thinks of our methods, we will never be without a land of our own again,’ and, as an American Jew, I hate the way it’s playing out, but I get it.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Covenant

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#109
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like that could be gotten around by using multiple lasers.

Multiple beams creates a different problem. Say your beam is 1cm across and you are aiming at a 30cm target. All your energy is in that 1cm. You don't much care where in that 30cm it hits so long as it burns through. But with two lasers, to be effective, each beam needs to hit the same sport on the target. Instead of a 30cm target, laser #2 now has to hit the 1cm beam of the first laser.

Those lasers do not burn through. #2 does not have to hit exactly the same place as #1 is heating up to boil electronics. No idea, what is meant under lasers in article, but what they were describing could be even be concentrated radio microwaves to fry electronics.

There is no need to use concentrated heat to heat up a tea - your target is making a tea, not making a hole in kettle.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#110
post #22

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.

They aren't, that's why they have shelters and contingency plans for themselves and their families.

If life were fair, they shouldn't be allowed to survive a nuclear war that they start, but life is rarely fair.

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