The Reality of the Laser

originally posted by: ARM19688
UK has Dragonfire, which has been successfully tested. Cheap to fire apparently and effective.

Yes. From what little I've read, I get the impression that the US probably collaborates with the UK on lasers,since they're such close allies, but Dragonfire is primarily a UK program. But again I'm sure there is collaboration in some form.

Also a lot of lasers are mounted on ships it seems.



Some suggesting everything was too far away to be lasers need to think again. They can be mounted on trucks or warships. ... maybe even trains.

Also, I don't think everything was destroyed before it reached Israel as some are saying. Am I wrong? Didn't some people get hurt from falling debris?


Could be some British ships equipped with Dragonfire in the mix that night.

originally posted by: Zaphod58

Of the UAVs, two US F-15 squadrons shot down at least 70.

That's a pretty good number and it's about what I would expect. Totally bad ass. I'd love to see some footage of them blasting the drones out of the sky. The F15 is a pretty impressive machine and I was reading that Israels super high-tech jet fighters are F15 s. We are Israels arms dealer to a large degree. Their laser is out laser too.

A Patriot got at least one cruise missile.

OK. That should tell you how hard it is to shoot rockets out of the sky with other rockets launched from the ground. Remember the scud ?

Lasers it's just bing pop boom.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: 5thHead

That never even got close to Israeli airspace. The only things that got there were the MRBMs that it would be useless against.

Well, maybe that's why they got through 😎

But seriously, Zap, why would lasers be useless against medium range ballistic missiles ?

And why do you shrug off the medium range ballistic missiles like they're no big deal. ?

This is a little 2 minute video on how Dragonfire finds and tracks objects.




At the end he talks about how it's designed to take out swarms of drones. That's what we just saw. Also this video is only 3 days old. Interesting timing.

a reply to: 5thHead

The MRBMs weren't intercepted, with the exception of 5 that were hit by Carney and Burke, and one that was destroyed on the ground in Yemen, until they were over Israel. It was the UAVs and cruise missiles that were hit before reaching Israel.

a reply to: 5thHead

Actually it doesn't, because the Patriots aren't all in an area to hit the missiles going by. It just so happened that there was a Patriot that was in position to hit one of them. Patriots are in strategic areas, and unless the missiles happened to go by where they were, they weren't going to fire on them. Carney and Burke got 6 MRBMs between them, and the ships in the Red Sea have been hitting them routinely.

a reply to: 5thHead

I didn't say lasers were useless against MRBMs, I said Iron Beam is, because it wasn't designed to be used against MRBMs. It was designed for use against short range rockets, mortars, artillery, etc. similar to Iron Dome. It's based on the Iron Dome system, so it's going to have similar limitations.

I don't shrug off MRBMs, but an MRBM against a well defended country, with a layered defense system is going to have a hard time getting through. Iran fired 110 MRBMs all told, and seven got through causing minimal damage to one base, and a C-130. The base was repaired in a matter of hours, and the C-130 will probably be repaired in a few days.

originally posted by: 5thHead
OK. That should tell you how hard it is to shoot rockets out of the sky with other rockets launched from the ground. Remember the scud ?

Lasers it's just bing pop boom

Here's a track of all the UAVs, and missiles that were launched at Israel. There were others that were launched at US bases.



The Patriots are around the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, and other strategic locations, to protect them. They weren't about to fire themselves dry hitting missiles going by, just in case others were launched at what they were protecting. Missile defense has come a long way since 1991, and it's significantly better than it was.

a reply to: 5thHead

remember how hard it was to shoot down that drifting
chinese BALLOON?
and they missed with the first 2 missiles

a reply to: confuzedcitizen

Except they didn't. The fired one AIM-9X at it, and it went through it on the first try. What appears to be another missile is the F-22. It's leaving a contrail, the missile fires, which is the second, smaller contrail, and it goes straight ahead through the balloon while the F-22 turns away a few degrees to clear where the balloon is to keep from hitting it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

look at some of the high altitude reenters and either they RV failed or something burned it up



there are a few that seem to have no accountable interceptor

and they were for sure launching IRBM's or did the US get them all?

a reply to: DronesandUFOs

The high altitude intercepts that were over Israel were Arrow 2 and 3. They were exoatmospheric intercepts, and what you were seeing was what was left of the RV entering the atmosphere. Iron Beam can only reach up to about 35,000 feet or so.

The US shot down 5 IRBMs using SM-3s from Carney and Burke in the Med.

youtube.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

why waste 20-100K dollars to intercept at most a 3000$ drone


and the arrow interceptors are multi 10's of millions per shot missiles and i can see them using those on IRBMS but the cost to intercept ratio is so far off on all the intercepts

how long does it take to build, manufacture, and package IronDome and Arrow 2/3 missiles ?


if you could take the drones out with IronBeam and hit the IRBMS with SM-3's and Arrow systems and PAC 3 to take out what could potently carry a nuclear payload.

i'm surprised that the drones haven't been loaded with chemical weapons son when they crash or even better explode of the city's in large numbers would be devastating

granted it might provoke a nuclear response and than it's who has the deepest holes to hide in.

it appears in the video you can see decoys burning up coming back down, a bunch of missiles fly threw what looks like flares and likely active counter measures.

a reply to: 5thHead

Perhaps you should be paying more attention, if these are new to you.

The Iron Beam, Israel’s ground-based laser air defense system, was first unveiled in 2014. Making it a decade old already.

I bet if some one searched ATS for that, and went back ten years you'll find a plethora of discussion about it.

Nice of you to share, but this is not new.

Iron Beam Laser Weapon System, Israel

Iron Beam is a high-energy laser system being developed by Rafael for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Project Type

High-energy laser weapon system (HELWS)

Developer

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems

Power Level

100kW

Programme

Iron Beam project

 The Iron Beam directed-energy weapon (DEW) is being developed by Rafael. Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry.

 Iron Beam is a 100kW-class high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS). Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry.

 Iron Beam utilises two high-energy laser (HEL) systems to deliver the required energy to overcome atmospheric disruptions and destroy the target. Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry.

 The Iron Beam directed-energy weapon (DEW) is being developed by Rafael. Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry.

 Iron Beam is a 100kW-class high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS). Credit: Israeli Defense Ministry.

Iron Beam is a 100kW-class high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS) being developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a defence technology company based in Israel, for integration into the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) multi-tier air defence framework.

Funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the Iron Beam system was unveiled by Rafael at the Singapore Airshow in February 2014.

a reply to: DronesandUFOs

Because you don’t want them landing on your head? Arrow 2/3 are about $2M a missile, and aren’t used on drones. Arrow is used for ballistic missiles, Iron Dome is used for low end threats. Iron Dome missiles are $40-50,000 per shot.

RTX is opening a facility in Arkansas that will eventually produce 2,000 Tamir interceptors a year, along with 1,000 Skyhunter missiles for the US MRIC, based on Iron Dome. Israel won’t release figures on how many missiles a year they produce.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I apologize if i was unclear i know they didnt you ARROW2 or 3 for intercepting dones.

Rather IronDome and mobile CRAM sites and fighters/attack drones.


IF and i hope to everything on earth this does not conflagrate into something larger, Some Iranian official from the military was saying that they considered Dimona and other sites as legit military targets.

i am surprised we are not seeing "ufo's" with all the drones and MRBM reentry etc.

I mean there was that octopus looking thing but i don't know if that was recent or over Ukraine

We know the US is giving Israel satellite and voice and location demonstrated by the successful leadership attacks with very very little collateral damage.

Now that Iran is OPENLY supporting Israel's enemies as well as admitting to supplying them and letting them launch from safe location where they can run back to Iran.


As much as i hate to say it Israel has started something that in my mind has a 50/50 of starting a major regional conflict or a world war.

a reply to: DronesandUFOs

If there was a real chance of a major conflict between them Iran would have reacted more strongly to Israel hitting them back. They barely even acknowledged that Israel did anything. They trotted out a couple new systems, made outrageous claims about their capabilities, and crawled back under a rock. They would have hit back by now, or at least amped up the rhetoric if they were going to do something.

a reply to: DronesandUFOs

a D-F laser would make a great high energy laser but it has to have a lot of supprt as far as power goes, and men who know how to use it etc.


a fiber laser hooked up to laser diodes and than combined like the do a the NIF were achieving mind-blowing effects

i just don't see how they are going to power a fiber laser/or any other MW and even at their current block only has a few 100 KW and suffers from blooming apparently pretty bad, seeing as they would be ground systems i would burry all the logistical equipment to protect from attack or be on a # or even a cargo aircraft.

how long can Israel keep making these missiles and how fast are we replacing out own stocks from Ukraine and now Israel

i have a theory is they are getting rid of old stock and making room for new more advance shells, and there is even a new ATACMS missile and a new cruise missile as well as a new ICBM.


why are some of out most secret bases somewhere in the sand?

we know some sort of beam weapon was tested that killed a lot of contractors and had a strange but localized fog rolled in(in Nevada) and shortly after that we hear a NK enrichment factory explodes

what if they figured out how to make such a weapon means that we can hit bases underground and even start chain reactions to cause a fizzle on ICBM MIRV's

there have been some interesting satellite launches from various parts of the world.

originally posted by: ADVISOR

Perhaps you should be paying more attention, if these are new to you.

The Iron Beam, Israel’s ground-based laser air defense system, was first unveiled in 2014. Making it a decade old already.

Yes. I've said it's been around for a while and that it's probably been used in the defense of Israel in the recent attack by Iran.

Perhaps the one who should pay more attention is you ?

I bet if some one searched ATS for that, and went back ten years you'll find a plethora of discussion about it.

Nice of you to share, but this is not new.

I don't see the point in searching for threads ten years old for evidence of something that just took place. But thanks for being a smart ass.






ETA - 10 years is a long time and that goes to my theory that at this point lasers are practical.

First time I was watching this I could see that some thing burnd up the missiles.
they did not just blow up!

If the laser in infrared or ultraviolet,
You can Not see the beam.
you can get cheap old video camras for £100.
that can see this, like Everio JVC AVCHD 40X zoom.
most camras can not see infrared or ultraviolet or on phones