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Ukraine confirms use of laser weapons (defence-blog.com)

submitted 23 hours ago by LaFinlandia@sopuli.xyz to c/ukraine@sopuli.xyz

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[-] peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 12 points 19 hours ago

Laser weapons are cool because you just need LOS and the ability to perfectly track and object.

The downside is that those lasers cough "excuse me" directed energy weapons, need time on the target to transfer enough power to damage the target.

On a battlefield, time is a commodity you don't have. The kamikaze drones make sense, they're basically explosives attached to home made RC planes. But anything fancier is going to need to be very precise or far more power hungry itself.

Which means if they are FIELDING them, and ANNOUNCING that they are using them, they have proven without a doubt that they are effective at their purpose. And it must be something else watching a line of fireballs just pop up in the sky 2km away.

[-] m4xie@lemmy.ca 8 points 14 hours ago

Another drawback is that they are more affected by atmospheric conditions such as rain and dust than projectile weapons are.

[-] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I've thought about this, but then I've also noticed that the soldiers say they prefer cloudy/foggy weather because there's far fewer (almost no) drones active in those conditions. So if the primary target of the lasers is consumer grade drones, that that might not be a problem.