5 ms·
My theory is that Russia/China/other-US-military-adversaries certainly cannot rewrite the laws of physics. But they might have gotten awful good at spoofing adv
by JackFr 4y ago
My theory is that Russia/China/other-US-military-adversaries certainly cannot rewrite the laws of physics. But they might have gotten awful good at spoofing advanced sensors.
- rolph 4y agoyes, one could work miracles with a couple of ultra high power IR lasers producing constructive interference with each other, yielding an optical phenomenon, perhaps even some thermal and RF signature.
- jbay808 4y agoIf you have a sufficiently powerful laser, you can create a spark that floats in mid-air. The air at the focal point gets ionized by the strong electric fields and looks quite dazzling (and dangerous). That spark, in turn, can be moved around freely and emits all sorts of RF noise.
- rolph 4y agoyes you have it right on, now if we can infer the effective range of such a technique it may be apparent that the real target is about twenty miles removed from the visual manifestation of the phenomenon.
- dogma1138 4y agoAny laser that’s powerful enough to do that would leave an IR trail back to the source which would be visible with FLIR and most likely even with the naked eye due to the atmospheric effects of heating up the air.
- jbay808 4y agoNot necessarily. If it's a femtosecond pulse laser, the instantaneous power is extremely high and creates a sufficiently intense field, but the time-average power is low enough that it wouldn't create much heat away from the focus. Source: worked in a femtosecond laser lab
- colordrops 4y agoThis is the best theory I've heard but doesn't explain how they spoofed the pilots' eyes.
- thedorkknight 4y agoHolograph tech, while we're speculating
- colordrops 4y agoI wish. I've been wanting a holographic display since I was a child.
- 8note 4y agoPeoples eyes get spoofed all the time by all manner of illusions
- colordrops 4y agoAt the same time as FLIR and radar?
- dogma1138 4y agoAfter seeing Garmin GPS units duct taped in Russian cockpits and cannon cameras in drones we can probably exclude Russia. China is still incapable of building complex home grown avionics and more importantly propulsive systems. When you are still reliant on licensing jet engines you probably aren’t flying nearly physics breaking aircraft. EW is a possibility however sensor spoofing still requires an asset near by and one with a lot of on board power. Many of those incidents weren’t where Russia or China could realistically deploy assets too. Right now the most plausible scenario (other than sensor artifacts and delusions) is that it’s either the US themselves doing it in secret or the private sector they are the only ones with the means to really test systems like the ones observed so far.