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Shift in Russian nuclear thinking as Ukraine war has dented Russia's confidence in its conventional forces, study says (www.reuters.com)

submitted 10 months ago by 0x815@feddit.de to c/news@beehaw.org

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Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/8116825

A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) raised the question of whether Russia might be emboldened to fire a NSNW in the belief that the West lacks the resolve to deliver a nuclear response.

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[–] Sina@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lasers have been used to shoot down satellites before, by both the US and China. Those shows were not really about satellites, they were about hitting long range targets moving at above “mach 10”.

Laser systems are far more effective in space than on the ground. (still plenty effective, but you need very powerful lasers to destroy a spread of warheads on time)

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago

The tests were done with ground based lasers, in 1997. Once they've proven the ability to go through the atmosphere, it means they can go any additional distance. Check the specs for the thing:

The MIRACL laser first became operational in 1980. It can produce over a megawatt of output for up to 70 seconds

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRACL

That was 40+ years ago... but the satellite test was done 17 years later, and it was claimed to have damaged the laser, even though it was operating at low power. Right now the Iron Dome is working on getting their "short range" lasers upgraded from 100kW to 300kW plus a multi-target capability, and China is boasting about a new cooling system that will allow them to fire continuously.

How powerful, and firing for how long, and/or how many lasers at once, does it take, to take out how many warheads falling for how long?

I bet someone has the right numbers for that, and if their installed capabilities are larger than the maximum number of simultaneous warheads they can expect, the effect is that ICBMs stop being a threat. Combined with the fact that lasers are perfect for hitting flimsy drones, it makes sense to have a lot of them installed.

PS: it gets slightly more complicated with something like a FOBS, but I wonder if a reflector satellite could be used against that.