200
The UK says it conducted a 'groundbreaking' trial of a laser beam weapon that can neutralize targets for $0.12 a shot
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
200 points (98.1% liked)
World News
39102 readers
2384 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The kill to cost-savings ratio on this is amazing. We can kill so many for so little!
Leaving so much room for activities!
The new Ford class carriers have a nuclear reactor in them that outputs about 2x as much power as the ship actually needs. If/when these are ready for prime time, prepare or some raves on the flight deck!
The USN already has two or three active DEW systems deployed and the next generation, HELCAP, is in testing now.
https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/sea-air-space-2024/2024/04/us-navy-readies-300-kw-helcap-laser-system-for-intercept-tests/
This will be used against drones and missiles. Does make me wonder what the cost per bullet is for militaries though
I know, I know, Quora, but this seems properly researched.
$0.23 for a round of 5.56, $0.76 for a round of 7.62. Ish.
Keep in mind, too, that lasers fire in about as straight a line as you can hope for, while bullets do not. It's going to take a lot more bullets fired to neutralize a target than laser "rounds" fired.
And laser rounds have a velocity of the speed of light, so it's pretty hard to miss if you have a perfect sight on the target
I was thinking about potential for inaccuracy due to refraction from thermal inversion layers or other temperature anomalies, but then I realized that the refraction would equally affect the optics, provided that the optics remain on target throughout the firing.
If I was designing a laser weapons system, I would probably include a targeting laser that would be of the same wavelength, and use that to automatically correct any alignment. A targeting laser, or series of lasers would require extremely tiny amounts of power compared to firing the laser weapon.
In that case, when WW3 hits I guess I’ll use my toilet tank lid for armor
Stylish and protected, nice combo
Yeah... those figures might be outdated. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 5.56 basically the same as a .223? If so Cabellas has them in a price range of $.60-$2.20/pc. Not that the price difference is what I'm correcting. What I intended to point out was that just because you can get ammo for $.23 doesn't mean your actual cost is guna be $.23/pc. In my experience with cheap ammo you're guna have at least 1 jammed per magazine on your best days. Unlike most things, you get what you pay for with ammo. I have 3 types of ammo for my AR. 1 cheap bulk box for making it rain lead at the range. 1 mid ranged box for actual use shooting coyotes, beavers and Coons. And the last ammo type are closer to the $2.20/pc price for when there is ever a scenario where I need to send 2 bullets through the same bullet hole from 500yds out. Lol half kidding but for real the bullet to bullet consistency for weight and concentricity of the $2.20 priced ammo to the .60 priced ammo is clear as day.
Read the link. Those were rough prices for the military, and the poster admits that the prices are a little out of date. He's not referring to what you'd pay at a sporting goods store.
Did you even read my post or did you stop at the 5th word lol.
I read the whole thing about how much ammo costs at retail for an individual consumer.
I can guarantee you're not coming close to the bulk buy per-item discount the military gets
Cruise missiles are usually shot down with interceptor missiles, which are a lot more expensive.
Woooooo! Death Ray! Yeah!
For a less than you pay for a cup of coffee, you can evaporate 10 or even 50 people!