These "firecrackers" actually kill people. Even if most of them are effectively duds (actual duds, misses, and with defenses the ones that are shot down) they still have an impact.
.It features up to 60 shots without reloading and, if it meets design goals, a probability of kill of nearly 100% at a range of 5 km."
1 - The claim of the people trying to sell it. Not saying its wrong because of that, but I wouldn't accept the statement as absolutely authoritative. I do in fact consider it likely to be true in some sense, but see the next point.
2 - Under test conditions, with no countermeasures, against a single shot.
What if the defense gets saturated (more than 60 rockets so it runs out of fuel, or just to many to track and destroy before they land, its not like there is a lot of time, you have something like 15 seconds from detection to impact. What about mirrored surfaces, or ablative materials on the outside of the rocket, or spinning the rocket so the laser has to heat a larger area? None of those are perfect defenses, or necessarily extremely easy for Hamas, but they are possible countermeasures that reduce the effectiveness of the defense. What about firing the rockets at a lower trajectory? (reducing the time they are exposed to the defenses, even if at the expense of reducing range)
3 - "If it meets its design goals" - That can be a big if.
I'm not dissing the idea, I think its a good one, just that defenses are rarely as perfect or near perfect as they might seem. |
