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Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

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Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#191

Post by coppsilgold »

Waterluvian wrote: post #190
coppsilgold wrote: post #182

Laser weapons appear to be advancing rapidly. Once we get to the single digit MW power range, MAD will deteriorate as the ICBM becomes a non-viable nuclear delivery mechanism. What effect would that have? Will nukes start getting used in wars? Will we see deployment of multi ton NEFP[1] warheads that can strike targets with nuclear-propelled kinetics? [1] https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/05/nuclear-efp-and-heat.ht..…

> Once we get to the single digit MW power range, MAD will deteriorate as the ICBM becomes a non-viable nuclear delivery mechanism. Requires a mountain of evidence and argument.

The best public arguments I have read:

https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-laser-revolution-pa...

https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-laser-revolution-pa...

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#192

Post by whatshisface »

nsoonhui wrote: post #189
karim79 wrote: post #154

[flagged]

This is an astonishing revisionist take on the reality on the ground. Israel unilaterally disengaged from GAZA in 2005 and pulling out generations of Jewish settlement in the process. By 2006 GAZA has zero Jews, and 2007 Gazans elected HAMAS who fired rockets at Israel because they want to free Palestine from the river to the sea, AKA eliminate Israel. October 7 attack is a culmination of that, and between then and n…

The issue with that type of reasoning is that if you swapped the parties the sentences would be the same. "Palestine removed generations of settlements from Israel, but was forced to attack because Israel wanted to wipe them out." You need to think in terms of principles that can apply equally to everybody.

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#193

Post by bawolff »

coppsilgold wrote: post #182

Laser weapons appear to be advancing rapidly. Once we get to the single digit MW power range, MAD will deteriorate as the ICBM becomes a non-viable nuclear delivery mechanism. What effect would that have? Will nukes start getting used in wars? Will we see deployment of multi ton NEFP[1] warheads that can strike targets with nuclear-propelled kinetics? [1] https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/05/nuclear-efp-and-heat.ht..…

We are nowhere near that point yet. Small rockets are totally different weapons then ICBM.

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#194

Post by woodruffw »

whatshisface wrote: post #186
woodruffw wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Israel has a right to defense qua state and Palestinians have a right to resist qua subjects of unjust rule. These aren’t really contradictory positions, and both are pretty standard from a “this is what the UN says” ground truth[1][2]. (This is distinct from a state’s “right to exist,” which is nonsense. But once a state does exist, it has the right to defend itself by definition.) [1]: https://www.un.org/en…

If they both have a right to kill each other, does the other really have a right to defense? Making it complicated introduces legalistic flaws and distracts everyone from actually fixing it by doing something simple, like tying sanctions to murders of civillians.

They don’t both have a right to kill each other! Both “defense” and “resistance” (w/r/t the goal of self determination) have precise bounds; not all forms of warfare or violence are considered justifiable under either. Much of what Israel has done in the current conflict goes well beyond a charitable read of its right to defense, but this doesn’t imply that all defense adaptations are illegitimate.

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#195

Post by bawolff »

bastawhiz wrote: post #165
wat10000 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not going to do anything useful against cars, let alone buildings. It would blind people, and that would be bad, but it’s a very expensive way to hurt people. I think this one is for what it says it’s for.

"It's a very expensive way to hurt people" has historically never been a real deterrent to motivated nation states to bring costs down

Countries dont generally invest in shitty weapons when they already have good weapons. Bombs & missiles already exist and are much better than lasers if your goal is to destroy a stationary target.

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#196

Post by karim79 »

anukin wrote: post #172
karim79 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There was a genocide committed against Bangladeshi Hindus by Pakistan and another being done right now by Bangladeshi govt in power now. A genocide is being committed in Nigeria by boko haram. Another in Sudanese war committed and funded by uae and other Arab nations. But let me guess, the only genocide worth committing your verbiage is the one where a certain people belonging to the favorite religion is facing issue…

I love the whataboutery Hasbara angle. It never gets old.

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#197

Post by vorpalhex »

karim79 wrote: post #163
vorpalhex wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As part of its ongoing genocide, which started on 7 October 2023 Well that was quickly debunked as a viable source. Israeli's didn't retaliate for Oct 7th until a few days later. > When some of the residents went out to investigate and tried to help, they were shot at by Israeli quadcopter drones. And another easy debunk - Israel uses explosive drones. Mounting a firearm to "shoot at" things from a drone is basical…

[flagged]

> Countless surgeons from The West have testified that Israeli drones have shot the hell out of people of all ages

How do the surgeons know it was a drone?

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#198

Post by wat10000 »

bastawhiz wrote: post #165
wat10000 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not going to do anything useful against cars, let alone buildings. It would blind people, and that would be bad, but it’s a very expensive way to hurt people. I think this one is for what it says it’s for.

"It's a very expensive way to hurt people" has historically never been a real deterrent to motivated nation states to bring costs down

The point is, why would they bother when there’s cheaper and easier ways to do it? A high tech laser system is great for shooting stuff down because it replaces missile systems that cost even more. If you want to cripple people, why would you use it instead of a cheap gun or baton?

“It could be used to hurt people” doesn’t mean much. You at least need “it could be used to hurt people, and it’s better at it in at least one way than what’s already available.”

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#199

Post by tguvot »

karim79 wrote: post #180
vladgur wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All lies? Hamas and Islamic Jihad shooting thousands of rockets before, during and after October 7 massacre is documented[1] by Wikipedia (that does have documented anti-israel bias[2]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_and_the_Israeli%E2%8...

Sorry but doesn't fly. Also Islam has nothing to do with Palestinian resistance. This theme of "Palestinians and Muslims are all Jihadists and all seek to kill Jews" is also getting really really old. 2026 will bring more enlightenment to the masses. Also, Israel loves messing with wikipedia as it has done for years. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/18/wikipedia-edit...

from haaretz article about Hamas plans:

Indeed, Abu Zaydeh is well aware that for the past two years the Hamas leadership had been talking about implementing "the last promise" (alwaed al'akhir) – a divine promise regarding the end of days, when all human beings will accept Islam. Sinwar and his circle ascribed an extreme and literal meaning to the notion of "the promise, " a belief that pervaded all their messages: in speeches, sermons, lectures in schools and universities. The cardinal theme was the implementation of the last promise, which included the forced conversion of all heretics to Islam, or their killing.

https://judaic.arizona.edu/sites/judaic.arizona.edu/files/20...

Re: Iron Beam: Israel's first operational anti drone laser system

#200

Post by boredatoms »

wat10000 wrote: post #138
halJordan wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good article. I disagree with its implications. I would agree that the average us citizen is much too far removed from the defense industrial complex and that creates these situations where a Google engineer (not necessarily this guy) is perfectly willing to help destroy American society with his advertising tech but balks at automating image tagging for the dod's big data lake because would rather have ano…

How is cell phone tracking going to prevent another 9/11? And looking at the historical track record, the DoD has done a lot of killing and very little 9/11 prevention in the past 24 years.

Do they have a public log of preventions we can look at? Seems fascinating to look at the numbers
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