SP, MLRS and SPAA Developments

[MarkSheppard]

US Army's Directed Energy Maneuver Short Range Air Defense system (or DE M-SHORAD for short)

LINK

LAS CRUCES, N.M., May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In four weeks of continuous live-fire exercises, an industry team led by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) business, and Kord, a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR, defeated multiple 60mm mortar rounds with a 50kW-class high energy laser integrated on a Stryker combat vehicle.

The directed energy weapon system — part of the U.S. Army's Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense, or DE M-SHORAD — acquired, tracked, targeted and defeated multiple mortars and successfully accomplished multiple tests simulating real-world scenarios.

Continuing to put the DE M-SHORAD system to the test, the recent operational assessment at White Sands Missile Range also included defeating several small, medium and large drones.

...

The joint industry team, which includes Rocky Research for power and thermal management, General Dynamics Land Systems for the Stryker platform, and Applied Technology Associates for additional sensors, is preparing to deliver four DE M-SHORAD units to Army Brigade Combat Teams in 2022.

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I'm just wondering how battlefield lasers could be handled within the game; you would need special code to handle them; as they'd have different effect levels:

Anti Drone/Mortar/Rocket (50 kW)
Anti-Artillery (150kW)
Anti-Aircraft (300 kW)

i.e. an anti drone 50 kW laser wouldn't be capable of defeating incoming artillery or enemy aircraft; etc

But all three would be able to operate in "blinding" mode -- i.e. be able to degrade a target's FCS -- it's been 30 years since Desert Storm and 25~ since the Chinese/Russians permanently blinded a helicopter pilot; so I'd imagine all modern FCS have anti-laser blocks built in now...

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Mark you would be correct about the anti-lasing tech on FCS and more. Like a radio wave it has a frequency range, pulse rate etc. and like a radio wave if you figure out the above (And more.) you can jam it or interrupt the signal. The Russian Shtora-1 system for example, employs its own laser across the frequency spectrum to disrupt the same from an incoming ATGW.
https://defense-update.com/20051012_shtora-1.html
https://bklein.ece.gatech.edu/laser-...-light-source/

This is like the "classic" battle between people buying radar detectors and the police developing radars that can defeat them so the driver will get that speeding ticket.

I used the Shtora-1 to illustrate how long this has been going on even previous to it. So, using a ATGW of a different sort, the STRIX which uses a multi band radar along with a "backup" optical targeting device.

With lasers we're talking frequency shifts in nano seconds. The targeting against things like FCS in the "space of time" is a newer area in use of lasers to defeat those systems however, like the police, counters are in place against that.

You don't need a war to figure that out. The advanced countries and based on their technologies are all developing offensive counter measures while at the same time developing defensive ones at the same time. That's just simple R&D.

We are seeing this in the practical sense now with the JAVELIN and others versus some of the Russian protection systems.

I've seen the video on mainstream news of this concerning one of Russia's most advanced jets, you judge for yourselves who's winning the technology war.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russ...ards-uk-2022-5
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...strike-fighter
(And several have been shot down.)

I would have to think this would be a tall order to get this to work in the game. Also, nobody yet has successfully fielded a practical system yet and for us the USN is further along than the rest I believe. I also believe those systems at this time and into the near future would have a hard time against multiply targets.

"Don Sherlock Holmes" that was a fine piece of detective work!

Regards,
Pat

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Well, it appears the M777A2 artillery systems we sent DID NOT COME WITH THE COMPUTER AIDED TARGETING SYSTEM. So it can't for instance fire EXCALIBUR with the precision the computer would've allowed for. But as the article notes they are getting precision fires because they're getting GPS targeting data from drones and spotters.

If we didn't send them you should understand by now nobody else did either.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...out&li=BBnbfcL

Regards,
Pat

[DRG]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

.................But as the article notes they are getting precision fires because they're getting GPS targeting data from drones and spotters.

Regards,
Pat

While we're on that topic, has anyone used the drones we added last release?

[Karagin]

Originally Posted by DRG

While we're on that topic, has anyone used the drones we added last release?

Yes and the two times I have used it one got shot down, and the second it was useful but not gaming changing.

[Steves308]

I'm playing a generated campaign game as the USA in 2022 and I just noticed the drones under the scout helo group. So I have bought one for my next round of the campaign and will give a try, interested to see how long it lasts until ka-boom

Steves308

[whdonnelly]

I've been playing with the RPAS drones lately. The fact that they are transportable with no cost comes in very handy. Getting an idea of how visible they are to enemy is ongoing, but the spotting function with the switchblades works like a charm.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Well after my Post #209 POTUS changed his mind two days later and I started watching to see what would happen. I got my answer about thirty minutes ago The Ukraine has NOW a battery (4) of HIMARS with the extended range 70km rockets. This was part of our new package approved this week.

I'm thinking this was a brilliant "sleight of hand" of disinformation against Russia for which those systems would cross a "red line" with them.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe..._vehicles.html

The following reports what's in the current package and provides a full update as to what we've sent to the Ukraine.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...r_ukraine.html

And also, as I offered in the post referenced at top, and this literally just came up, we've given NORWAY permission at some earlier point in time to send the Ukraine their M109A3GN improved SPA systems. Refer back to Para 2, they're also in country on the front.
https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...nian_army.html

They're there and in operation, don't have time to break this down more-I gotta go to work!!!

Regards
Pat

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

Mark you would be correct about the anti-lasing tech on FCS and more. Like a radio wave it has a frequency range, pulse rate etc. and like a radio wave if you figure out the above (And more.) you can jam it or interrupt the signal.

I don't think you quite understand.

On Quora, there's a question:

"How quickly can a 10W 450nm laser blind a person or animal?"

"There would be a 50% probability of permanent damage in about 300 nanoseconds. I am not sure whether you call that blinding a person.

In about 500 microseconds, a large thermal burn will occur on the retina, causing a permanent large blind spot, a blood spurting ulcer on the retina, severe pain, and permanent damage to the vitreous humor.

If you missed getting the beam directly into the eye, the beam will hit the sclera, eyelids and other tissues. Within a couple of milliseconds, painful burns will result."

"Instantly. 450nm ~blue/near uv. Specular reflections (reflection off something ball shaped] will find any eye looking. 10W is a LOT of power and even a glint will instantly cause blind spots if not outright blindness. Yes, the damage will be permanent."

The 50 kilowatts (kw) laser used in US army anti-drone stuff is 50,000W: or approximately 5000 times more powerful than the hypothetical 10W laser example cited above.

It doesn't matter if the optical sight used in the fire control system is coated with an anti-laser coating good against that laser; it just means it takes 50 milliseconds longer (number out of nowhere) to burn through to the internals of the system.

At that point; the best thing the optical system can do is to fail gracefully and go "dark" before the damaging laser energy can be transmitted to the crewman's eye(s).

Honestly, at this point; the best defense against laser attacks is to be moving fast enough and erratic enough that it becomes almost impossible for the laser tracker to lock onto an optical/thermal sight or vision block.