Großbritannien hat eigenen Angaben zufolge einen „bahnbrechenden“ Test einer Laserwaffe durchgeführt, mit der Ziele für 0,12 Dollar pro Schuss neutralisiert werden können.

https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-says-tested-laser-beam-weapon-multiple-targets-neutralize-drones-2024-7

47 comments

  1. If you are curious as to what qualifies as a “target”:

    > Raytheon UK said the system was designed to readily integrate with current air-defense systems, such as radar, command and control, and other platforms, and defeat NATO class 1 drones.

    And from google:

    >NATO classifies drones as Class I Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) if they weigh 55 pounds or less. This category includes hobby drones and military drones that weigh up to 150 kilograms. Military drones are further divided into three categories: micro (<2 kilograms), mini (<15 kilograms), and small (>15 kilograms). Class I drones typically have a range of 5 to 50 kilometers when using a line of sight (LOS) communication link.

    **edit** the google stuff is wack. So I dug deeper. It looks like the actual definition is a drone that weighs less than 150kg ( or 330 in freedom units, aka lbs ).

  3. When I served in the USAF I remember the Airborne laser was still in testing. Then one night out on the flight-line I spotted a very odd looking aircraft. It was like a 767 with a large hump on the top that went from cockpit to 3/4 down the fuselage. We circled it and wondered what that is. the door opened and a crew member came out to ask what we were doing. We told him we were F-15 crew chiefs and were trying to figure out what it was. He said come on up. We enter it and immediately to the right were rows and rows of 2 man stations with monitors. He said it was the Airborn Surveilance Testbed(AST) the Airborn Laster and this aircraft quietly retired and dissapeared. The AST he said could detect a missile launch immediatly and determine its impact point. Super cool and interesting but it just dissolved into the ether. I still wonder where and how far they got with directed energy weapons because it seems like a no brainer.

    [https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/78hohd/us_army_airborne_surveillance_test_bed_ast_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/78hohd/us_army_airborne_surveillance_test_bed_ast_a/)

    [https://boeing.mediaroom.com/1998-11-24-Boeing-Airborne-Surveillance-Testbed-Tracks-Missiles-With-New-Seeker](https://boeing.mediaroom.com/1998-11-24-Boeing-Airborne-Surveillance-Testbed-Tracks-Missiles-With-New-Seeker)

    I know CSB but I can’t imagine it being tested, worked and ….crickets. Where’d it go? What did it evolve into? It can acquire and track ICBMs. Makes one wonder….what can we do if all is known?

  6. **Masters of the Universe!!!*** ^^^[Theme ^^^tune ^^^plays]

    We’re back baby!!!

  7. In before China somehow steals the technology because UK still has done nothing about all the security breaches

  8. what happen if the drone is mirror polished, like an airstream trailer? or one could make a drone out of disco ball, then the result would be a light show.. just add daft punk music to the disco ball drone

  9. Article says it managed to cut a Fart in half at a range of 30km

  10. Feels like an expensive way to kill birds, and a cheap way to take our drones.

  11. Can it be aimed at a giant foil-wrapped ball of popcorn seeds at my professor’s house?

  12. $0.12 per shot? What, are we paying by the laser now?

  13. Until it hits fog. Seriously. It’s a major vulnerability of these systems

  14. Can I get a model version of that? I’ve been dreaming about something like that for a while now to shoot mosquitoes and wasps.

  18. South Korea should test it on the plague balloons coming from NK! 

  19. Bruh the sky over Ukraine is going to look like a Sonic Frontiers bossfight, if this is ever shipped over.

  21. All wars are fundamentally economic. The US failed in Afghanistan because after 20 years we lost the will to spend 100k a pop to kill a farmers that the Taliban had extorted into firing $50 homemade rockets. They defeated our will by fighting on the only battlefield they could win, they fought cheaply and exploited our willingness to waste trillions.

  24. If by “neutralize targets” you mean distract feline predators, I got one that can do it for even less.

  25. That’s even less expensive than your mom.
    She costs 1€ per shot!

  26. Imagine learning someone killed you by paying 12 cents. The disrespect is more powerful than the laser

  27. Nice nice… also that order of clones from Kamino should be arriving any day. Nothing to be worried about.

  28. Only one question: does it work on flies, musquitoes and wasps?

  32. All of the articles I can find are marketing speak, with very few technical details that would actually indicate how groundbreaking this weapon is.

    What is the actual rate-of-fire? The articles I find don’t seem to mention it. Is it limited by available electricity or by thermal constraints of the laser modules?

    Does the cost-per-shot count only the electricity used, or does it also include amortized wear-and-tear on the machine before it must be refurbished or replaced? These are very high power system operating near technical limits to reach the power/rate-of-fire they do. They may need expensive maintenance at intervals. That cost should be factored into the cost-per-shot.

    **tl;dr Sounds promising, but a complete lack of operating parameters (rate-of-fire, amortized operational cost, etc), should put a damper on any excitement we may feel**

  33. This may not sound like much, but…it’s just the beginning.

    The Wright brothers plane in 1903 Was nothing like the German planes in the Spanish Civil War just 23 years later in 1936.

  34. Anyone else want to watch Real Genius after reading this?

  37. They need to get that cost down to the 6-8 cent range.

  42. I doubt that is in Pg&e territory. Costing a dollar a shot.

  43. $0.12 per shot but $1,800 to $2,000 to build the obelisk.

  44. So afaik, Laser weapons were banned because they can blind people, This one is fine because it just makes your head explode.

  47. I was reading an article the other day about South Korea creating a laser for 0.5 a shot, the Uk did it for 0.12 a shot.. do I hear 0.05 a shot anyone? 

Leave a Reply