Footage circulating in Russian pro-military channels this week shows what is claimed to be a Russian laser weapon system engaging aerial drones, according to a Russian military blogger who described the video as an "exclusive." The blogger's post claimed several
Why laser when you can have something like shotgun?
These are large drones that fly too high to hit with a shotgun. also laser is by far the cheapest option because it just takes electricity to operate.
Lasers massively lose efficiency over distance because the light spreads with distance. They’re horrible for long range targeting.
Shotguns lose efficiency over distances even faster.
That’s why there are shells which explode at a certain distance. But yes the general issue here is range. Shotguns are close range and cheap. Lasers are close range and expensive.
They are using them right now, so clearly not that terrible for this use case. Even when you have loss of efficiency, if you’re hooked up to the power grid, you can amplify the power enough for it to be effective. And it’s going to be cheaper than producing interceptor missiles and drones that have to be physically produced, stored, and distributed.
It’s not about power efficiency. Lasers require focussing a lot of light at one certain point. But the further the distance the more the light spreads. That’s just physics. Communicating with lasers isn’t the same as burning stuff with them.
Lasers are also utterly doomed when the sky isn’t clear because mist and clouds can fracture the concentrated light
As for intercepting missiles: If you’ve seen the speed at which hypersonic missiles come down you’ll find a laser doesn’t have much time to burn it.
Israel has been bragging about their epic laser tech for multiple years now yet they’re still firing interceptors. A laser might be able to defend one single static target in a 1km range from drones but not a whole border. And swarm tactics can still overwhelm the laser and just destroy it
Yes, and that’s literally where power comes in. The more powerful the laser, the further it stays coherent. Again, these are literally being used in combat right now. And they’re not intercepting missiles, they’re intercepting slow flying drones. What I was saying is that it’s much cheaper to power a laser than to make an interceptor.
Americans also can’t figure out how to make hypersonics, but Russia, China, Iran, and DPRK can. Just because the reich can’t do something, doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
I have a serious doubt that whatever Russia could cobble together would be an effective laser weapon for more than just demo.
Yeah the will of Ukraine will triumph against the slavic horde that hadn’t even seen asphaltroads, plumbing or anything but human wave assaults.
Is this the sequel to “Russia’s nukes probably don’t even work”?
No it’s more like Russias piss poor attempt at making their very own gps system while having none of the benefits of the USSR … 32 satellites launched so far. One lost … 4 or 5 in orbits so low as to be detrimental, not one so far has reached the target 800km goal . Second launches are dispersed in various geostationary orbits and completely varied. They needed a net to get geo location and they cats pebbles in the pond. There are ramifications to dumbing down the country.
Oh, you’ve been gorging on youtube thumbnail slop and this is the result.
How to say you uncritically guzzle propaganda about the adversaries of the empire without saying it.
How to say I am a Russian bot in two lines.
You gotta love how the first thing libs do is dehumanize anybody who disagrees with them. Scratch a liberal and…
Yep. And they’re always so quick to do it when they receive any pushback to the things they say.
ok there reddit brain