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I also don't entirely understand how directed energy stuff can work against things that aren't just going on a ballistic trajectory like hypersonics. You need t
by somenameforme 3y ago
I also don't entirely understand how directed energy stuff can work against things that aren't just going on a ballistic trajectory like hypersonics. You need to nail that target for an extended period of time. And it's safe to say that if these things ever taken off then the countless sorts of passable protection (multiple layers of thick highly reflective surfaces for instance) would end up being applied to important weapons, meaning you need to hit them for even longer. And these sort of defenses could be done for quite cheap and a very low weight.
And then like you said, the engagement range is also going to be quite short - meaning all of this becomes just that exponentially more difficult.
- 15457345234 3y ago> You need to nail that target for an extended period of time. I think the idea of DEW is that you're not trying to literally melt the thing out of the sky, you're trying to penetrate it electrically and scramble something. To that end a very sharp pulse (chirped pulse) is the better approach as then you're more likely to cause damage once you exceed the capacity of (for example) the input isolators on the radar antenna to divert excess energy away from the very sensitive amplifier. Or, to put it a simpler way, you're trying to make sparks jump across gaps.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago> multiple layers of thick highly reflective surfaces this protects from lasers, but also makes it glaringly obvious to EW and radar systems.