Re: Interesting - Ukraine Missiles Use Open Source, Russians Use Pi-4s

On 7/25/26 08:42, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 25/07/2026 02:43, c186282 wrote:
>> On 7/24/26 06:00, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>> On 24/07/2026 04:39, c186282 wrote:
>>>> "GoldenDome" is NOT practical. The USA is just
>>>>    WAY too damned BIG. It can be attacked from any
>>>>    direction. The sheer scale of a missile defense
>>>>    system is, well, just impractical.
>>>>
>>> I think the only way to make this work is to move everything of 
>>> importance underground. And leave the surface for cyclists and bunny 
>>> huggers
>>>
>>>>    Something new/different would be needed - giant,
>>>>    really giant, lasers or something.
>>>>
>>> Or a lot of little ones.
>>
>>    Who's gonna PAY for them ? Just to cover the US
>>    mainland we'd be talking maybe a few THOUSAND
>>    of those 'small' lasers. X-percent will be out
>>    of service at any given time.
>>
> What makes you think they would be expensive?

   Think about the tech, and precision, required.

   Price building a 500kw-plus pulse laser in yer garage.

   Oh yea, what powers them, The Grid ??? Three EMP
   devices and 90% of The Grid goes down hard. Ya
   might be OK in like Miami - but Miami ain't gonna
   save the whole USA.

   To intercept a big, maybe a bit wobbly, incoming
   missile you'd have to focus HUGE energy on ONE
   spot within maybe 0.1 second. Haven't done the
   equations, but I think we're talking HUGE laser
   energy here. Then you have to re-charge within
   a few seconds to get the NEXT missile. Put a
   micron of shiny chrome on the missiles and now
   you need TWICE the energy.

   Did see a fun news story today ... a couple of
   Ukrainians in an open-cockpit plane shot down
   a Russian drone. The guy in the back seat took
   it out with a RIFLE and it crashed into the sea.
   Brit pilots in WW-2 used to "bump" V-1 drones
   off course with their planes. Are we back to
   1944 again ?  :-)

   The "nest of hornets" model kinda invented by
   Ukraine - the face of 21st century war - is
   incredibly difficult to defend against. It's
   the end of 'large' assets - aka large TARGETS.

   Iran - hate 'em or hate 'em - is employing the
   same 'nest' strategy. It's proving impossible
   to get at EVERYTHING, thus leaving them enough
   to at least 'terrorize'.

   The USA doesn't need any more big carriers, it
   needs to spend that money on 200 little, mostly
   robotic, drone/missile launching boats and
   cargo planes that can spit out a dozen.

   How to DEAL with masses of drones and little
   missiles - SOME maybe with a tac-nuke - coming
   from every direction ??? Lasers and 'smart'
   counter-drones are the only tact, but don't
   think the lasers will be cheap or lack
   vulnerabilities. The incoming drones will
   also have avoidance algos for counter-drones.

   Oh, and China will have pre-hacked the laser
   software - one or more 'kill switches'. Good
   fuckin' luck finding them  :-)