The Daily Populous Wednesday July 24th, 2024 night edition
Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by Silly-avocatoe

The UK said it test-fired a laser beam weapon in a "groundbreaking" trial.

The Ministry of Defence said it could neutralize targets for just $0.12 a shot.

Countries are racing to develop weapons that can combat drones and missiles.

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The UK says it test-fired a laser beam weapon that can track and take down multiple targets for just $0.12 a shot.

In a press release on Monday, the UK's Ministry of Defence said the laser energy weapon, mounted on an armored vehicle, was able to neutralize targets more than a kilometer, or 0.6 miles, away.

It described the trial as a "ground-breaking" test conducted for the first time from a land vehicle in England, and said it gave the UK military a greater tactical advantage in combat.

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GamerGeologist on July 23rd, 2024 at 18:37 UTC »

Bruh the sky over Ukraine is going to look like a Sonic Frontiers bossfight, if this is ever shipped over.

WellThatWasSmart on July 23rd, 2024 at 18:15 UTC »

$0.12 per shot? What, are we paying by the laser now?

Aleyla on July 23rd, 2024 at 17:02 UTC »

If you are curious as to what qualifies as a “target”:

> Raytheon UK said the system was designed to readily integrate with current air-defense systems, such as radar, command and control, and other platforms, and defeat NATO class 1 drones.

And from google:

> NATO classifies drones as Class I Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) if they weigh 55 pounds or less. This category includes hobby drones and military drones that weigh up to 150 kilograms. Military drones are further divided into three categories: micro (<2 kilograms), mini (<15 kilograms), and small (>15 kilograms). Class I drones typically have a range of 5 to 50 kilometers when using a line of sight (LOS) communication link.

edit the google stuff is wack. So I dug deeper. It looks like the actual definition is a drone that weighs less than 150kg ( or 330 in freedom units, aka lbs ).