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

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
    ·
    5 months ago

    There's also the issue of laser range, which would probably be not very far, closer to the hypersonic missile last phase of attack range.

    • knightly [none/use any]
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yep! Line of sight alone would limit laser countermeasures to the horizon, to say nothing of the air scattering the beam's energy for the whole distance.

      But interceptors (anti-missile missiles) have no such limitation and would remain the only effective countermeasure for hypersonics.