Agents of SHiELD - US Military successfully tests laser defense system

[Andreas Lilja]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:02 PM, rcmaehl said:

Don't think anyone disagrees with this graph but I'd rather not talk politics

Isn't a lot of this partly based on wages and benefits?

 

Russian and Chinese soldiers are being almost literally being paid peanuts.

[Results45]

On 5/7/2019 at 4:14 AM, ScratchCat said:

They have multiple projects for different situations. The YAL failed as to engage it's target, enemy ballistic missiles during the boost phase, it would have to be inside enemy territory. For small bombers or fighters this might not have been an issue to avoid interception but for a huge maneuverable 747 (the laser mass alone was above 3000kg) it would be game over.

 

Some installations currently do. However the interceptors are expensive at $40,000 per unit while each shot of a laser is negligible compared to virtually anything else in the military. Lower power lasers such as the LaWS only cost around a dollar per shot.

 

The lasers can also be used with surgical precision to take out low end targets such as small water craft or UAVs without harming the occupants of the former. With a naval shell you can at best hope the wreckage is still in the shape of a boat.

 

When not being used as a laser it actually can be used to search for objects at "tactically significant ranges".

 

Yep they've probably also incorporated tech and features developed during the YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed program:

 

 

Also related: the USS Gerald R. Ford's electromagnetic launching system (aka EMALS).

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