The UK has successfully fired a high-power laser weapon against an aerial target for the first time in a trial.

It is hoped that the test will pave the way for a low-cost alternative to missiles to shoot down targets like drones.

The DragonFire weapon is precise enough to hit a £1 coin from a kilometre away, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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    9 months ago

    Yes programmable munitions may currently be able to do the job more reliably, especially in adverse weather conditions, but they’re also vastly more expensive. The cheapest option is a CWIZ but even that thing costs something like $40,000 a minute to fire and using missiles can cost up to $1,000,000 each or more. The laser costs maybe $5 each time you fire it.

    Economically its a no brainer to use a laser system when possible.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      9 months ago

      The cheapest option is a CWIZ but even that thing costs something like $40,000 a minute to fire

      You don't have to spam stupid amounts of individual bullets.

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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        9 months ago

        You don’t have to spam a stupid amount of individual bullets.

        You would against a drone swarm, especially if each drone is more than a meter or two away from the next one.

        I will say that my memory was bad and so my cost was wrong. A CWIZ has a rate of fire of about 3,000 rounds a minute with each round costing something like $30. So the firing cost per minute is $90,000!

        Back to your point; engaging a single target will use about 100 rounds for a cost of $3,000. So if for a modest swarm of 10 drones dispersed such that each has to be targeted individually the total cost would be around $30,000. Contrast that with a HEL system where the total cost would be around $50.

        Even if you could upgrade the CWIZ to “one shot one kill” levels of accuracy it would still cost $30 per drone so our little swarm would cost $300 to deal with.

        I love the CWIZ but the economics are entirely in favor of HEL systems.