Despite advancements, such as the U.S. Navy’s HELIOS system and the Army’s IFPC-HEL, today's lasers can't yet reliably stop hypersonic threats.

https://archive.is/2024.08.05-032033/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-military-freaked-lasers-are-no-secret-weapon-against-hypersonic-missiles-207436

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    1 month ago

    The solution is shotguns with a rate of fire akin to a minigun. If you saturate the air and everything around it in a wall of bullets it's not getting through that.

    But it's gonna cost ya.

      • Crucible [he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        Sorry best I can do is spend another 200 trillion on railguns instead

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Using the monkey's paw to wish for more rail but its the USA so we just get railguns

          • ProletarianDictator [none/use name]
            ·
            1 month ago

            Outspending China on maglev, but its only for terrorizing minority urban populations, ultimately going unused because they're less reliable than 150 year old handgun designs.

    • huf [he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      hear me out. a mountain. on rails. so you can quickly yank it in front of you when the missile is coming.

      • miz [any, any]
        ·
        1 month ago

        if the mountain won't go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must— hang on, I'm being handed a note

      • HotAtForty [he/him]
        ·
        1 month ago

        A mountain on wheels which is actually more profound than it sounds

    • knightly [none/use any]
      ·
      1 month ago

      Against hypersonics, this isn't really a solution.

      The missiles are designed to force their way through thousands of pounds of air per second. Adding a few ounces of lead and/or hardened steel in the last few milliseconds before impact won't do much.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      How to defend against hypersonic missiles:

      • A giant net to catch the missile in
      • Put lipstick and false eyelashes on an other missile. This will make the hypersonic missile go "oh la lala!" and make it's eyes pop. It will then chase after the girl missile, forgetting everything about where it was going.
      • The iron dome but for real. We encapsulate the entire west in a giant iron tank and the missile will just boink right off it.

      I will need 600 billion dollars to maybe possibly build this.

      • Dessa [she/her]
        ·
        1 month ago

        Paint a fake picture of a military base on a brick wall to fool it

    • LocalOaf [they/them]
      ·
      1 month ago

      Didn't they basically try that already with the Metalstorm project for naval CIWS trials? I thought that got dropped for some reason

      • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
        ·
        1 month ago

        I thought that got retooled into a fire suppressant system that never made the news again

        • LocalOaf [they/them]
          ·
          1 month ago

          Ngl, a version of Metalstorm that shoots those firefighting grenades that Thailand developed would be sick. Or convert old A-10s and load up their rotary cannons with them and use them to strafe forest fires and give them some sick red firetruck livery and call it Operation Extinguisher or something. In conclusion, government give me money for my cool ideas.