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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| SKors develop laser weapons |
| 2007-11-10 |
| SEOUL - South Korea is developing a mobile truck-mounted laser weapon capable of destroying North Korean missiles and artillery shells, a report said on Saturday. A defence ministry research team and defence firms have been involved in the development of high energy laser weapons, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said. From 2010, South Korea hopes to deploy the weapon, which can counter North Korean missiles and long-range artillery shells deployed along the border, it said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Roll your own |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-11-10 15:07 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-11-10 10:12 |
| #3 ...This is a REAL threat to one of the few hammers Kimmie as left in his arsenal: the artillery barrage in the Seoul/Munsan area with which he hopes to blow the defenders away in the opening moments of any attack. If the SKors can figure out a way to make it even a fraction less effective, then Kimmie can kiss any chance of a successful conventional attack goodbye. That leaves him nukes or chemicals, and he knows the response those will bring. I almost wonder if we're not looking at a 'Red Storm Rising' scenario very soon on the DMZ - a really bad food shortage, an international embarassment, and losing one of the few aces he has left pushing Kimmie to jump... Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-11-10 08:56 |
| #2 Israel doesn't need to buy these from SKor - they developed their first prototypes of tactical lasers for this purpose back in the 90s. US had parallel research going on and for a while we did joint R&D. Here's an example of the Israeli version. In the last few years US THELs have successfully shot down a wide range of rockets, artillery and mortar shells in extensive tests. They haven't been deployed due to logistical and tactical issues, not technical ones. a) Power. The chemically-powered versions put more energy on target, but require frequent resupply of expensive chemicals and disposal of the toxic cannisters afterwards. The versions powered by an electric generator have lower-power energy beams, requiring longer time on target for the kill. They also need logisgtical support, ie. fuel for a generator if you're away from a grid or in case power lines are disrupted. b) Airspace management. The beams don't fall to earth if they miss the target - they continue on in a mostly straight line and place military and civilian aircraft in danger. This is the most serious issue preventing THEL deployment in Iraq right now. Air platform-based HELs will probably be deployed as part of ballistic missile defense. But ground based lasers won't be used broadly for a good while, I think. The Korean dmz being one of the exceptions, given the fixed location of the threat etc. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-11-10 07:27 |
| #1 Israel should try to buy a few. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-11-10 00:17 |