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Weapons And Tactics Of The 06 Middleast War
- Thread starter utelore
- Start date
The current generation of beam weapons are still quite bulky and primitive. Most are hydrogen fluroride (chemical) laser type that flunks the portability test, unless if you think ICBM-sized trucks count as portable. Also, because of mobile requirement and physics (energy dissapates over distance in non-vaccum environment), the effective range of "mobile" ground-based laser systems are only 2km-5km, comparred to 747-sized airborne systems like ABL (~300km).
One major advantage of laser-based systems is cost-per-kill, since the chemical fuel is much cheaper than interceptor missiles, or even CIWS ammunition (tungsten/DU). CIWS guns are more mature, but despite what the manufacturer claims in effective range up to 3km, they're still point defense systems where hard-kills occur at ~300 meters. The lack of range makes CIWS guns unsuitable for defending a wider area.
Which leaves us with... missile-based systems like the Patriot and S-300. Geez, million dollar missile vs. $20 Katsuya rocket.
One major advantage of laser-based systems is cost-per-kill, since the chemical fuel is much cheaper than interceptor missiles, or even CIWS ammunition (tungsten/DU). CIWS guns are more mature, but despite what the manufacturer claims in effective range up to 3km, they're still point defense systems where hard-kills occur at ~300 meters. The lack of range makes CIWS guns unsuitable for defending a wider area.
Which leaves us with... missile-based systems like the Patriot and S-300. Geez, million dollar missile vs. $20 Katsuya rocket.