remotelove , 6 months ago

The effectiveness of a laser system, is neither about speed nor range, but about exposure time of the target.

I get what you are saying, but exposure time is directly related to speed and range in the context of the laser systems I was referring to. I’ll explain below and try to call out my own knowledge gaps as well.

I knew we had satellite killers, but I didn’t think those were practical enough to be deployed in an effective capacity yet. If there are, that would be neat.

For the smaller systems, I am only aware of the Israeli laser systems used to supplement their “iron dome” and some of the ones the US has on their ships. Both of those, I thought, only had an max effective range of about 2km, but only because of average atmospheric conditions. (And maybe even beam dispersion or something? That is a guess.) 2km @ mach 6 is 2 seconds of exposure time provided that the target acquired in advance.

It just makes more sense that those two laser systems are used to supplement a larger defense strategy. My mistake if I implied that they would completely solve any issues and not have consequences. Sure, the rocket, morter or whatever may not hit its primary target, but anything else could be considered a secondary target, I suppose.

(If I said anything stupid, just call me out. I like discussions about these kinds of things.)