pew pew, go laser sharks, run free. Soon Hollywood will recognise you and make the ultimate film "Sharks on a Train"
The trailer is amazing.
Giant frikkin' British laser turret to start zapping stuff next year
The Dragonfire laser cannon consortium has unveiled a fullsize mockup of its shipborne blaster at the Defence and Security Exhibition International arms fair in London. The Dragonfire laser turret mockup at DSEI 2017. Pic: MBDA The £30m Dragonfire laser turret mockup at DSEI 2017 The £30m turret-mounted laser cannon is …
-
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 23:24 GMT Poltroon
Re: LDEW?
Ships to make serious use of lasers, especially the higher-powered ones that will follow this model, will obviously require substantial capacity to generate electricity while remaining underway. This could also be used in railguns, which will have an over-the-horizon capacity that lasers lack. Navies will need to work out and wargame the correct mix of these systems.
But without any experience of naval warfare, I can be sure that the ships bearing this potent combination of electrical weaponry into battle must be called Laser And Railgun Dreadnoughts.
-
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 14:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
Who's he kidding? I can't think of ANYTHING procured by MoD that meets all three, and it is possible to argue that almost all MoD projects didn't meet a single one of those criteria.
Them again, I'm being harsh. I suppose it was "innovative" of MoD to lease C-17s for more than the purchase cost. The QE carriers have certainly been effective in buying votes in Labour strongholds. Affordable, now that's a bit more difficult.
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 15:52 GMT Tim99
Re: Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
One major difference though, the original STEN cost <£150 and came down to about £10 in today's money. I have seen some of the early STEN versions; apparently if you were behind whoever was carrying it, and they pointed the weapon down/forward for safety, it was OK. In spite of its reputation, it was a very effective weapon out to about 40 yards, and described as a "room clearer".
-
Thursday 14th September 2017 06:32 GMT Milton
Re: Sten
Ah, good old Sten - competing with the M3 for the "looks like it came from the plumbing aisle of a hardware store" title. But as someone pointed out, it *was* cheap, unlike today's eyewateringly expensive laser wheeze.
I'm curious about the "all weathers" spec ... And will it work as well on shiny, beautifully polished and reflective targets? And those with ablative coatings? And those designed to spin in flight? Or indeed, *any* targets using the obvious, cheap, easy countermeasures?
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
Friday 12th January 2018 19:54 GMT fredj
Re: Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
Before my time but I was told the trick was to jump out of a truck and accidentally hit the but on the ground. This would knock out the safety pin and prime the mechanism to fire a bullet upwards though your chin.
The secret of these guns was that they could be made by village blacksmiths. Now there is a tip for our defense procurement costings! OOps, village blacksmiths are long gone.
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 18:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
Based on the picture, looks like it will double as a full-body MRI device when it's not in use blasting North Korean ICBMs out of the sky.
So it's affordable because NHS is going to foot 90% of the bill. That is, as long as it's hooked up to a proper Windows XP Home Edition installation with a minimum of 500MB of ram.
-
Thursday 14th September 2017 04:25 GMT streaky
Re: Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
Innovative, effective and affordable solutions
Obviously you're not looking hard enough or your have impossibly high bar definitions of those words. Storm Shadow was that, SAMPSON is that.. Brimstone.. the list is endless.
Side note something being expensive doesn't mean it isn't affordable, take for example the F-35...
-
-
Thursday 14th September 2017 13:22 GMT Andy The Hat
Re: A likely (west side) story
The way the navy are going it'd be more effective to steer the ship close then lob very hungry sharks at the enemy with a rubber catapult.
Or, going high tech, perhaps a battery of Vector ® Squid Guns ... (should that be a kalamari of Squid Guns?)
Or just smack Kim-J-Whatsit across the hairstyle with a wet cod until he gets really annoyed ...
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 14:39 GMT Robin Bradshaw
I have a plan to uparmour my drone to defeat this using easily and cheaply produced ablative carbon foam tiles¹ to whom sould I apply for an opportunity to test this armour against the laser? Perhaps the special projects bureau could get this tested for us, expensive laser Vs £1 worth of diy carbon foam? :P
¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wex_yKfrTo4
-
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 21:22 GMT Chris G
Re: Not only the fuse
If you're going to change the fuse AND the resistor you are going to need a sparks, so you had better add another million for callout and maybe an extra half a million for the sharp intake of breath when he gets there, looks at the job and says he has to go back to the van to get a different screwdriver.
-
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 16:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Next step :
I seem to recall reading on here somewhere that the laser only needs to make a tiny imperfection in a reflective surface for it to next to useless as a defence against the laser. The tiny imperfection rapidly expanding or something.
Anyone with more knowledge than me care to refresh my memory please?
-
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 17:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
What!!
<quote>
which is buying Dragonfire on behalf of the navy. Once those tests have ironed out any bugs, a public demo will take place in 2019.
</quote>
Why are they buying one BEFORE they have tested it. If the company was so confident with the product, then why not lend one for testing / demo purposes.
Is this a done deal? (ENK syndrome, beer token for the first commentard to get it right)
-
Wednesday 13th September 2017 22:57 GMT Not also known as SC
Really Stupid but Genuine Question
I know I could probably look this up but I much prefer the explanations given by Reg Commentards. Usually far more interesting and informative than wikipedia etc.
So here goes. Could you defeat this laser by having a highly mirrored surface on the target? I guess the answer is no, but why not?
-
Thursday 14th September 2017 02:18 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward
Re: Really Stupid but Genuine Question
It's hard to keep mirrors clean in the real world.
Any speck of dirt, oil, fingerprint or squashed bug gives you a spot that is highly absorbing, this then heats up and blackens, so the damage spreads, so it absorbs more energy and so on.
The super expensive 99.99% reflective mirrors inside the equipement can be destroyed spectacularly by a bit of contamination
-
Biting the hand that feeds IT
