It is, assuming they didn't photoshop it to get nerds excited ( They do this with NASA photos of space ) there's a pretty major practicality concern with that sort of laser beam though. The ones everybody thinks about are high power laz0r beams that can obliterate trees and successfully burn through metal which would be fucking awesome.
However if all this laser can do is down a drone and then nothing else the poor fuckers who are tasked with manning it are going to be giant targets because having a beam of light shoot down drones may look cool but they'll be broadcasting their position so hard you could see it from space which is not what you want if you want to stay even vaguely hidden while shooting down these drones.
I'm totally shitting on this tech I know, but that's because I've seen attempts by the military on this as well. Totally impractical as a proper weapon and it barely reaches the specs of a warhammer lasgun. The energy costs? Don't even want to think about it.
Something to keep in mind when the military try hyping up this tech. I also wouldn't be shocked if they started posting up stuff about implementing power armour and going through designs with the media finding out which one looks coolest. Yeah, it's like the psyops they tried pulling to stroke gamers' egos by telling them they needed their skills to pilot drones or get military thots to lure them in.
If made even slightly smaller than the existing unit, these can be bolted onto most armor in the same vein as they presently do with jamming devices or reactive systems, only with more success. Jamming small drones is perfectly possible, but jamming someone is typically something you want a human operating in real time and not something you can bolt onto a tank. So present modular jamming units are unreliable since they have to be pre-set and hope you're hitting the frequency the enemy is using.
Not so with this. This is a superior counter to the small drone warfare doctrine that is rapidly developing in the Ukraine.
Smaller versions of this already exist, it's called a photonic fence and is used to wipe out mosquitoes in flight using a scanning laser to ID the species and sex of a ufo, then a more powerful laser to either flat out burn specific targets to death or just incinerate the wings and effectively cripple things.
The main problems with the photonic fence are that the places which need it don't have the infrastructure to power it, and the units get stolen otherwise 🙄
Obviously the scales involved there are negligible to humans beyond the aspects of disease vector control, but the basic premise of a DE system using IFF, identification friend or foe, is there. Meaning if you have drone vs drone swarms you can pick off only the ones you want, most simply done by considering uniform, mass produced models vs everything else.
I reserve my right to assume this is another pathetic attempt by the military to make themselves look cool to the younger generations in an effort to bolster their abysmal recruitment numbers.
Not gonna lie, that's cool as fuck.
It is, assuming they didn't photoshop it to get nerds excited ( They do this with NASA photos of space ) there's a pretty major practicality concern with that sort of laser beam though. The ones everybody thinks about are high power laz0r beams that can obliterate trees and successfully burn through metal which would be fucking awesome.
However if all this laser can do is down a drone and then nothing else the poor fuckers who are tasked with manning it are going to be giant targets because having a beam of light shoot down drones may look cool but they'll be broadcasting their position so hard you could see it from space which is not what you want if you want to stay even vaguely hidden while shooting down these drones.
I'm totally shitting on this tech I know, but that's because I've seen attempts by the military on this as well. Totally impractical as a proper weapon and it barely reaches the specs of a warhammer lasgun. The energy costs? Don't even want to think about it.
Something to keep in mind when the military try hyping up this tech. I also wouldn't be shocked if they started posting up stuff about implementing power armour and going through designs with the media finding out which one looks coolest. Yeah, it's like the psyops they tried pulling to stroke gamers' egos by telling them they needed their skills to pilot drones or get military thots to lure them in.
You misunderstand the premise of the tech here.
If made even slightly smaller than the existing unit, these can be bolted onto most armor in the same vein as they presently do with jamming devices or reactive systems, only with more success. Jamming small drones is perfectly possible, but jamming someone is typically something you want a human operating in real time and not something you can bolt onto a tank. So present modular jamming units are unreliable since they have to be pre-set and hope you're hitting the frequency the enemy is using.
Not so with this. This is a superior counter to the small drone warfare doctrine that is rapidly developing in the Ukraine.
Smaller versions of this already exist, it's called a photonic fence and is used to wipe out mosquitoes in flight using a scanning laser to ID the species and sex of a ufo, then a more powerful laser to either flat out burn specific targets to death or just incinerate the wings and effectively cripple things.
The main problems with the photonic fence are that the places which need it don't have the infrastructure to power it, and the units get stolen otherwise 🙄
Obviously the scales involved there are negligible to humans beyond the aspects of disease vector control, but the basic premise of a DE system using IFF, identification friend or foe, is there. Meaning if you have drone vs drone swarms you can pick off only the ones you want, most simply done by considering uniform, mass produced models vs everything else.
I reserve my right to assume this is another pathetic attempt by the military to make themselves look cool to the younger generations in an effort to bolster their abysmal recruitment numbers.
The Brits aren't having recruitment issues that I'm aware of. That said, fair enough.