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To: Real Cynic No More

Besides a hypersonic interceptor I think the future will be a laser based interceptor, what’s faster than hypersonic ??

A laser based system, is it star wars fantasy, perhaps but so was hypersonic speed 10 or 20 years ago


8 posted on 11/20/2021 2:34:22 PM PST by srmanuel (`)
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To: srmanuel

There have been airborne laser interceptor systems in operational testing for at least 10 years. check out the Boeing YAL-1


13 posted on 11/20/2021 2:52:04 PM PST by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
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To: srmanuel
but so was hypersonic speed 10 or 20 years ago.

Most warheads are traveling at Mach 20+ when they reenter the atmosphere and slow down due to air friction to about Mach 5+ by the time they hit their targets. This has been true from the days of the first ICBMs.

The maneuvering part is very difficult because of the effect it may have on accuracy - potentially very negative. If you are trying to hit a hard target you would not want additional accuracy problems like that. If you are aiming at a soft target this is not quite so bad.

15 posted on 11/20/2021 3:01:41 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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