Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Israel rolls out laser defense system

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 250 posts

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#61

Post by einpoklum »

Note Israeli PM Bennet is currently facing a lot of media and public attention to large price hikes of different consumer goods, electricity and gasoline. Just saying.

(PS - Also, scrutiny about Israeli soldiers having bound and gagged an 80-yro Palestinian man, leaving him on the floor in some abandoned building after having stopped him in an illegal roadblock, with him eventually dying. Israelis wouldn't need a distraction from that kind of stuff happening, though; we/they are already trained to filter that out.)

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#62

Post by loceng »

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.

The best initial solution I believe is for the world to protect Palestine from the rockets fired from the Israel side - that way any retaliations to the small group of people firing rockets at Israel don't kill civilians or damage their infrastructure; e.g. put an Iron Dome or better system on the Palestinian side.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#63

Post by RegnisGnaw »

m4rtink wrote: post #58
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.

IIRC (based on hard SF laser defece discussions) there is no perfect mirror, so pump enough MW/GW into it, even just for a short burst and the thing will start to melt or outright vaporize from the bit that it will always absorb. Then it won't be so shiny anymore, absorbing even more energy and so on, until it stops being a solid object. As for erratic flight paths - a physical object can't aim to match the beam stee…

Its more a range issue. Irom Beam has a like a 7 km or mile (I forgot) range. Whereas other like Arrow 2, Arrow 3, or David's Sling has like 100km+ range.

Iron Beam is all about cost per interception.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#64

Post by doodlebugging »

>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.

Interestingly enough this system will be available to all those neighborly enough to join Israel against all the Iranian-backed adversaries. It sounds like sales of technology from the NSO group was a real foot-in-the-door for Israel for forging of new, previously unlikely alliances.

Once you get all these rich petro-states hooked on the products that you can peddle then maybe the overall security situation in that region changes dramatically. For one, it becomes more likely that one of these operators could act unilaterally and thus could kick off a war that no one else wanted when other options were still on the table.

Interesting development overall.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#65

Post by ahthat »

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.

No post body was provided.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#66

Post by nickff »

doodlebugging wrote: post #64

>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. Interestingly enough this system will be available to all those neighborly enough to join Israel against all the Iranian-backed adversaries. It sounds like sales of technology from the NSO group was a real foot-in-the-door for Israel for forging of new, previously unlikely all…

>"It sounds like sales of technology from the NSO group was a real foot-in-the-door for Israel for forging of new, previously unlikely alliances."

Israel has had 'secret' alliances with some supposedly 'antagonistic' states for a long time. These are all just extensions of those previously hidden relationships.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#67

Post by golemiprague »

loceng wrote: post #62
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.

The best initial solution I believe is for the world to protect Palestine from the rockets fired from the Israel side - that way any retaliations to the small group of people firing rockets at Israel don't kill civilians or damage their infrastructure; e.g. put an Iron Dome or better system on the Palestinian side.

No post body was provided.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#68

Post by doodlebugging »

m0llusk wrote: post #37
james-redwood wrote: post #19

The space lasers were real /s (in reference to the Republican congresswoman who blamed the California wildfires on Jewish space lasers: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-gree... )

It really surprises me that so many people who have seen UFO reports all their lives cite this as nothing but humorous stupidity from a politician. People who follow satellite data in order to understand global patterns of earthquakes and weather saw what looks like beams from unknown sources hitting areas that then caught fire. As with anything else this is very likely to be some kind of sensor or transmission glitc…

> People who follow satellite data in order to understand global patterns of earthquakes and weather saw what looks like beams from unknown sources hitting areas that then caught fire.

What? Is there a link to any of this or is it just standard internet BS?

I've heard of earthquake lights and there may be something to that. Never heard of anything focused on places that later caught fire. The fires that I am aware of were mostly blamed on poor maintenance of electrical utility infrastructure or on arsonists or fools doing stupid stuff like "gender reveals".

Enlighten me, but not with one of them space lasers, just about them.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#69

Post by wahern »

WJW wrote: post #52
newsclues wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automated counter-battery in addition to AD would be an interesting extra layer of deterrence.

And a PR nightmare. Shoot a missile from a school or a hospital, then afterwards the newspaper articles write themselves when the automated system retaliates. Radar data showing it was a missile launch site will always lose to pictures of mothers holding dead children. Counter battery is also of questionable effectiveness when most launch sites are used only once.

> And a PR nightmare. Shoot a missile from a school or a hospital, then afterwards the newspaper articles write themselves when the automated system retaliates.

There's nothing new about Hamas firing rockets from schools and hospitals and Israel responding. It's difficult to exaggerate how dirty the conflict is, and in many respects always has been. It's a positive feedback look because these activities only further dehumanize one from the other's perspective, and it's compounded by people on both sides who capitalize on this dynamic for their own gain.

I have a neighbor who grew up in Israel in the 50s and 60s. If you even mention the words "Arab" or "Palestinian" she'll get visibly angry and bitter. I'm sure the feeling is mutual for many on the other side.

Re: Israel rolls out laser defense system

#70

Post by nickff »

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 issue, there are outside parties (such as the Iranians) who have a vested interest in preventing a lasting peace (in order to preserve their influence both in Palestine and in Lebanon).

Post reply on HN