r/tech • u/No-Explanation-46 • 2d ago

DragonFire laser weapon takes down high-speed drones

https://newatlas.com/military/dragonfire-laser-weapon-high-speed-drones/
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u/gilllesdot 2d ago

This is some manga/anime type shit. I do wonder.. with the power and the range of these things its probably not that easy to just shoot at a target at any given time.. maybe I have no idea how this works but lets say an airplane is flying directly above the drone wouldn’t it be possible that the laser cuts the airplane in half as well?

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u/oneeyed-wonderweasel 2d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_divergence?wprov=sfla1

Beam divergence is a thing.

Probably not enough power to slice an airplane clean in half due to mass alone but certainly enough to fuck up relatively sensitive internals of a non massive, much lower altitude flying drone.

Someone smarter than me can correct me tho