Flying drones have been a part of modern warfare for a good few decades now. Initially, most of these drones were built by traditional military contractors and were primarily used by the world’s best-funded militaries. However, in recent conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere have changed all that. Small commercial drones and compact militarized models have become key tools on the battlefield, for offense, defence, and reconnaissance.
With so many of these tiny craft buzzing around, militaries are scrambling for practical ways to shoot them down. Lasers might be just the ticket to do exactly that.
Why Lasers?
The Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser 2.0, or MEHEL 2.0, is a US-built anti-drone laser system that has been trialed on Stryker combat vehicles. It can be seen here as the tan unit fitted on top of the vehicle. Credit: US Army, public domain
Shooting down drones, even the basic plasticky ones you get at Walmart, is a frustrating exercise. They’re tiny, and thus surprisingly difficult to see. They can also be difficult to detect, even if their radio emissions do help track them down.
The big problem for modern militaries, though, is that drones are often incredibly cheap. It’s simply not practical to fire a $10,000 or $50,000 missile to shoot down a drone worth a tenth of the price. Bullets are cheaper, but without guidance, they’re more difficult to get on target. The ones that miss tend to fall back to Earth, injuring people in the process. Plenty of them will miss, too, because those tiny drones are both very maneuverable, and again, very hard to track.
In many ways, lasers offer the perfect solution to this problem. The laser destroys targets by melti ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
