It adds another immensely complex system to a ship already filled to the brim with complex operations.
They are not hitting a wall - they are being decelerated at a pre-determined rated over a predetermined area. The difference is that the deceleration happens by a robot, not a snagging wire and hook. The robot can use the whole length of the deck if needed, or just let the jet pass by if the landing isn’t within…
It would be! Since it only operates in a very small area, it actually only has to hold it’s charge for a few moments, perfect for high discharge capacitors. Also, it’s no like there is no way to launch multi-ton objects on a carrier deck or anything - it’s not like hey do this all the time or something :)
You missed the part where the deck reaches up to take the plane, the plane doesn’t land. All the jet does is come in at the appropriate glidepath. All the brains figuringing out the microsecond variations in pitch, yaw, wind, sea state, the direction of the ship for the next few tenths of a second - all processed on…
Now that we have autonomous vehicles, I’m not sure why airplanes will need landing gear in the future.
I wouldn’t want it to have the mind of a thinking soldier, I want it to have the mind of a berzerker.
A human pilot can’t be jammed, a human pilot doesn’t overwhelm a datalink with fast motion high def 360 degree video required to dogfight, a human pilot doesn’t have latency issues over a long connection.
You would think a mirror would be effective, but it’s not. The most reflective surfaces only reflect like 80% of the energy, the rest is absorbed as heat. With laser weapons, even absorbing only 20% of the energy at best will burn or explode the reflective medium nearly instantly.
Actually, this is something I’m not so worried about. Could China, Iran, or Russia develop gound or air based lasers? Sure! But they won’t have the power, reach, accuracy, or refire capacity that our system will have.
You must have missed this article:
The problem I see with developing a slower, less maneuverable platform that will destroy missiles... is that missiles won’t be thrown at it. What happens when railguns start being deployed as a weapon system? Now the fancy new fighter has no way of evading OR defending against incoming hypersonic rounds. Once it’s…
For A2A, I think the middle step will be stealth sensor drones that will penetrate enemy airspace and loiter, looking up to find targets via passive radar and IRST. It will send that info back to missile trucks that can launch from the maximum distance of a weapon system - never bothering to turn on their own active…
It looks like the front end of Battlestar Galactica
Big Trak! I used to lay waste to my army men with this thing.
The sailors will then have to acknowledge orders with: “By your command”
The Iraqi government want’s to expel a foreign force on it’s sovereign territory. HAHAHAHAHAHA... haaaa... oh, that is a good one. I’m not even going to touch them going to the UN to get something accomplished. What a farce a united Iraq is. No one takes it seriously.
Answered my own question:
Do we have any idea which model this was? Was it an older Strela (SA-7), Igla (SA-18), or newer Verba?
This is from a Strategy Page article