Israel seems to have had a breakthrough

[Sky727]

I have always been told a laser weapon might work out to a couple of miles if the atmospheric conditions were favorable; unfortunately that is not the case most days and nights. Israel has come up with a new approach that does not need a nuclear power station to make their Laser work effectively . If all this is true we will be saving on brass in the near future..
 

Jul 2, 2025
Something impossible is happening in Israeli airspace. The infrared monitor glows bright in the darkness. A small cross-shaped targeting reticle tracks steadily across the screen, following the silhouette of an enemy drone cutting through the night. No sound. No warning. Just the soft hum of cooling systems and the gentle whir of servos adjusting aim. But there’s no missile streak, no muzzle flash, just a brilliant white light exactly where the crosshair points on the drone's wing. The wing shivers and disintegrates. The drone tumbles, spinning wildly as it loses lift. As it plummets, the reticle shifts to the drone's main body, where the warhead waits. Another burst of white-hot light. The explosion fills the monitor with debris and smoke. Technology has caught up with science fiction. Israel destroyed a drone using nothing but invisible energy traveling at the speed of light.

[Nerb]

Logic needs to be applied here.

Why would they target a wing first and THEN the warhead. Doing this incorporates the chance of a falling drone with a still armed warhead which is not clever.

Skeptical on this info and obviously, I can't trust this, yet.

Also, consider all those 100kW+ beams that get blasted out into the atmosphere and space and the possibility of using simple reflective surfaces and heatshields to counteract these systems in the future. Also, revealing the source of those beams, because they have beams, is opening up those sources for targetting themselves.

Interesting clip and thanks for sharing.

[EXETER]

Logic needs to be applied here.

Why would they target a wing first and THEN the warhead. Doing this incorporates the chance of a falling drone with a still armed warhead which is not clever.

........

They target the wing first because that's the quickest and most reliable way of making sure the drone doesn't get to its target or get away.  In particular, the part of the wing that is closest to the fuselage (the "wing root") is the part of the structure that is most heavily stressed during flight.  It doesn't take much damage there and the wing will buckle instantly and the drone is no longer flying.  The tail assembly is a close second, in those cases where the drone has a conventional design, with a rudder and elevators.  If you burn the tail feathers off, the bird stops flying.  Once the drone can't fly anymore and get away, you have more time to destroy the warhead, if you want to.  In many cases, the drone might fall on empty land, and you wouldn't need to waste a shot on the warhead.  They probably make that decision on a case-by-case basis.

[rickymouse]

Impressive.  It appears that they were working with the US on this system too, so the US also must have this technology, but I doubt if Israel will give everything they know about this system to the USA.  But then again, maybe since we have shown our support for them, they will share all of it with the USA or we will become trade partners with them in this new proven technology....it would save a lot of money if this works, but it will not replace the need for certain missile systems.  Along with building this system, I am sure they are also investigating methods of protecting from this kind of system when others develop it.   They seem to be ahead of the game in this.

Maybe the Aliens gave them this technology. 

I like that little laughing LOL....hey guys do not shoot my   with an iron beam.

[Zaphod58]

Logic needs to be applied here.

Why would they target a wing first and THEN the warhead. Doing this incorporates the chance of a falling drone with a still armed warhead which is not clever.

Skeptical on this info and obviously, I can't trust this, yet.

Also, consider all those 100kW+ beams that get blasted out into the atmosphere and space and the possibility of using simple reflective surfaces and heatshields to counteract these systems in the future. Also, revealing the source of those beams, because they have beams, is opening up those sources for targetting themselves.

Interesting clip and thanks for sharing.

Reflective surfaces are going to, at best, delay burn through. They won’t stop a laser completely.

[ArMaP]

They target the wing first because that's the quickest and most reliable way of making sure the drone doesn't get to its target or get away.  In particular, the part of the wing that is closest to the fuselage (the "wing root") is the part of the structure that is most heavily stressed during flight.

Wouldn't a broken wing result in a spiralling drone?

[Zaphod58]

Wouldn't a broken wing result in a spiralling drone?

It’s also going to result in an almost immediate crash resulting in it missing the target.

[ArMaP]

It’s also going to result in an almost immediate crash resulting in it missing the target.

Naturally, but my question was because of they targeting first the wing and then the nose.
If a hit on the wing would make it spiral and crash it would be difficult (or impossible) to target the nose after.

PS: as usual, I didn't watch the video.

[Zaphod58]

Naturally, but my question was because of they targeting first the wing and then the nose.
If a hit on the wing would make it spiral and crash it would be difficult (or impossible) to target the nose after.

PS: as usual, I didn't watch the video.

Correct, but the goal is to prevent it from hitting the target by any means necessary. The wing is a big, easy target compared to the nose, which is actually a remarkably small target to try to hit.

[worldstarcountry]

What is the breakthrough being explained?? I been watching Israeli videos  on Laser defense systems for a quarter century now. The targeting is clearly  faster now  with AI. But as we can see just from this 13 year old video, which references programs from as far back as 2000, they been shooting stuff with lasers for over 20 years.

What has been the holdup with actual deployment?? The Turkish army tested a HUMVEE mounted  system in Libya less than ten years ago in actual combat and shot down a drone being flown by UAE assets. Why are these systems not all over modern battlefields already with a quarter century of development under its belt already? I know power source was a big issue in the past, but it seems these systems have being made significantly more energy efficient per shot, especially with the Turks successfully using it in combat from a Hummer in 2017.




Lasers, invisibility shields, cameras to see through plastic objects like electronic housings and clothes. Why does it seem like the longer future tech is in the real world, the less we ever actually see it in use??