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Israel rolls out laser defense system

reuters.com

171–180 of 250 posts

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#171

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…

At the current power level, this laser is mainly useful against drones. There is a limit to how much laser power you can shoot through the air. When the threshold for breakdown is exceeded, a high density plasma is produced which is opaque to visible and infrared wavelengths and thus absorbs the laser radiation. The moon does not have this laser power limit, but moving Tel Aviv to the moon would quite expensive and y…

They would have a space laser though.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but moving Tel Aviv to the moon would quite expensive and you would lose the mediterranean climate On the flip side, you'd be really far away from Iran.

Now that you mention it, having people able to flee to moon/space pods/mars changes the "Mutually Assured Destruction" math.

Pretty sure we quickly would build IPBM and nuke every planet in the solar system just for good measure.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#173

...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.

Which shows you're missing the fundamental problem. There can be no peace with the Palestinians because it's not the Palestinians that Israel is actually at war with in the first place. Rather, they are pawns of their backers--if you somehow make peace with a pawn another simply steps up. Any peace agreement that actually worked would have to be with those backers--and they have never even been at the negotiating tab…

Additionally those backers are in power because of the conflict. Why would they want to end it? For their power to hold they need the animosity towards Israel.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#174
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...

Do you also post Russian or North Korean responses when discussions involving these countries occur? Israel is currently governed by a bunch of corrupt jerks motivated by a racist ideology, their officials response don't deserve more credit than Kim Jong-Un's. It's not a problem with Israel or the Israeli people (most of whom just wish they could live their life in peace in the country they are born in, bearing no re…

Israel was attacked pretty quickly after its founding.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#175

...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.

people here consider israel an occupation power remnant from the past century, not a neighbour

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Or maybe stop starving and killing the children living in Gaza who will then make proud soldiers of the Hamas when they grow up, repeating the endless circle of violence? And maybe stop encouraging Qatar to fund Hamas[1]? Yes, you read that right, and the source is a reputable Israeli newspaper. Hamas is a really convenient opponent for the Israeli government: they are evil, corrupt and basically harmless, but they a…

It's not so simple. There is a layer of power between Israel and the children of Gaza Israel is not in control of (that's Hamas). It's also not about starving, nobody is starving, but for sure there are electricity blackouts, and a poor life quality in the strip. In fact Israel provides Gaza with food and electricity. And there are wealthy Gazans with super villas, luxurious cars and diamond covered iPhones (powerful people and cronies)

As I wrote Israel could reconquer the strip and remove this layer, but that's very difficult to do.

Qatar money transfers (yes, everybody minimally informed knows about that, it's not a secret) are in my opinion harmful errors on Israel's part. It's basically protection money, it makes Hamas stronger. But that's an understandable error, considering the few options Israel has. The short term solution is to pay for quiet, politicians love that.

And Hamas is not harmless by any means. It has a big rocket arsenal, contacts with Iran, it has showed it can instigate civil unrest inside Israel, it kidnapped in the past civilians and soldiers, it has a good defense force (Israelis had great difficulties entering the strip in 2014), it launched tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of incendiary payloads causing life losses and fires, it has drones, earth to air missiles, it penetrated Israel borders a few times. And it's growing more powerful. No it's not harmless (and that's even not considering their soft power in terms of propaganda and controlling news sources)

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#177

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…

the enemy might even shoot mirrored rockets just to reflect the beam and scorch what's below ...

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you also post Russian or North Korean responses when discussions involving these countries occur? Israel is currently governed by a bunch of corrupt jerks motivated by a racist ideology, their officials response don't deserve more credit than Kim Jong-Un's. It's not a problem with Israel or the Israeli people (most of whom just wish they could live their life in peace in the country they are born in, bearing no re…

Israel was attacked pretty quickly after its founding.

It's way more complicated than that, but anyway for the past 30 years Israel has been at peace with their neighboring countries and isn't realistically being threatened (yes I know Iran talks a lot, but in practice they are completely unable to strike Israel, while the opposite isn't true, so it's not really as if the threat was meaningful).

All that remains is a colonial war against Palestinian people to put hold on the entire region, based on a supremacist vision of what Zionism should be (and it's not what the founders of Israel had in mind when the country was formed). The Palestinians from the West bank are completely unable to defend themselves from the rampant colonization and Gaza is conveniently left unchecked in the hands of a terror group, who albeit causing little practical damage[1] exert enough terror[2] to keep the Israeli population in a mind-state of perpetual war. This is 1984 taken as an instruction manual.

Honestly, it deeply saddens me that the Jewish people, after suffering two crimes against humanity in the twentieth century (the holocaust, then the mass deportation of Jewish people living in the Arab world, after the creation of Israel) are now involved a third time, now as the tormentor.

[1]: a war in which you lose no military, nor infrastructure and only a handful of civilians isn't a war.

[2]: hundreds of flying rockets that can blow up your house and will kill a dozen of your citizen is a powerful terror attack.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel was attacked pretty quickly after its founding.

It's way more complicated than that, but anyway for the past 30 years Israel has been at peace with their neighboring countries and isn't realistically being threatened (yes I know Iran talks a lot, but in practice they are completely unable to strike Israel, while the opposite isn't true, so it's not really as if the threat was meaningful). All that remains is a colonial war against Palestinian people to put hold on…

I disagree profoundly. You say that it wasn't a war because Israel didn't lose too many people? Perhaps the aggressor should have thought about that before starting a war. Israel put a lot of effort in defending itself, so your premise isn't even correct. It is a perverse rationalization that doesn't even warrant a serious response.

Frame it as colonial as you wish, the fact is a systematic prosecution of Jews in almost all surrounding countries. That was never caught up upon. Maybe start now. It would have been better to start yesterday, but it is never too late.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#180
post #81

Could you make the missile really really shiny so that it reflects the laser away?

Industrial lasers use water cooled copper mirrors to avoid overheating and destroying the mirror. Keeping them clean is a big issue. Seems it would be quite hard to make a missile sufficiently reflective that a mirror coating wouldn’t quickly degrade.
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