cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4825742
- The high-powered laser is faster and cheaper than traditional missiles or cannons
- An undisclosed NATO country is expected to receive the weapon in the next 18 months
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Australia is helping to take the world into the era of Star Wars-style combat.
A Canberra-made laser is about to become NATO’s newest frontline defence against enemy drones, in a deal experts say could transform the future of warfare.
The high-powered laser, nicknamed Apollo after the Greek God of Light, can destroy up to 20 drones a minute, at a cost of $1 per shot, which is faster and cheaper than traditional missiles or cannons.
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I thought a shot of this kind of stuff would be way more expensive in terms of power supply
Well, according to https://www.ex2.com.au/news/eos-unveils-apollo-high-energy-laser-weapon-helw/
it’d be quite affordable, even if that power had to be sustained continuously.
1 hour of operation requires 150 kWh of energy. That’s a steal compared to alternative “ammo”.
It’s even more of a steal since it can be easily recharged using a trivially available and easily transported resource you’ll need anyway in order to be mobile: Fuel.
A generator capable of powering that kind of equipment will definitely come with a price tag of some description, but in the not even very long run it’ll be cheaper, because it is a mass produced widely available piece of industrial equipment, and uses a relatively inexpensive consumable. The expensive bit here is the laser itself, powering it is dirt cheap in comparison. The laser will draw up to 150kW of power, a diesel generator in that power range will burn roundabout 40l of diesel an hour under full load. That’s way cheaper (and more compact) than even a relatively small amount of ammunition you could use for shooting at drones instead of frying them with an enormous laser, and a dude carrying jerrycans working at a leisurely pace could easily keep it resupplied.
Yeah me too. And it was said also that the energy levels needed for a beam to penatrate was very high, especially for long distances.
+Here some more info on the EOS’ ‘Apollo’ High Energy Laser Weapon (HELW), 100~150 kwh. Nothing like starwars ofc, still issues with humidity, fog and hills fyi.
Still could be a neat thing if it works well in the field. I wonder how it will do during (North) European (winter) conditions.
I pay $0.10575/kwh - now this varies around the world, but let us round it to $.10 which is reasonable and makes math easy. $1 then would be 10 kwh over 1 minute - that is a lot of power. Of course they are probably using a generator so $.50/kwh is more likely, but still we are getting 2kwh over 1 minute - that is a lot of power and a big generator.
Yes, indeed it’s a heavy energy using Laser the Aussies made.
US energy prices are very low, like 60% cheaper compared to European prices which are around€ 0,22 per kWh ( 2024)