The rail gun has hit some hardware problems, though. It uses so much power that it ends up destroying itself when fired. They're going to have to come up with some (likely expensive) new material solutions for it to work.
The laser is the actual game changer because it actually can be built up to the point where no incoming missile can touch our ships, meaning the enemy will have to get extremely close and use guns, which they won't be able to do because we have missiles and they don't have the ability to stop them.
Well there are a number of other factors that come into play in a saturation attack. With anti-missile missile systems it doesn't really matter when the anti-ship missiles arrive on target. Eventually they will cause the target to expend all of its missiles. With a anti-missile laser, there is effectively unlimited ammo, so in order to defeat it with numbers you then need to add a layer of complexity to the attack, which then presents a vulnerability that can be exploited. The missiles would need to arrive at the target at the same time, or thereabouts. That's easy enough if you send a flight of aircraft up and have them fire together. But it's more difficult when you have, say, shore-launched missiles from different locations trying to coordinate with sea-launched missiles from ships at sea. Not a huge issue, but it could potentially come up.
Now, the advantage of the laser is that as long as you have enough power, you can keep adding lasers to your ship. Perhaps you can only build a laser to a certain power threshold, and that might necessitate keeping it on a target for several seconds in order to destroy it. But if you have 4 of them synced up, all hitting the exact same spot, you may only need a second to destroy it, maybe less. Imagine the number of lasers a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier could host. Not only that, but imagine the number of lasers a carrier GROUP could handle. This makes defeating them with numbers a much more difficult thing.
I remember that the supplier for the rail gun rounds was charging (what seemed like) a ridiculous amount per round, so the contract was cancelled or something. Maybe they were so expensive because some proprietary material was being used?
The rail gun has hit some hardware problems, though. It uses so much power that it ends up destroying itself when fired. They're going to have to come up with some (likely expensive) new material solutions for it to work.
The laser is the actual game changer because it actually can be built up to the point where no incoming missile can touch our ships, meaning the enemy will have to get extremely close and use guns, which they won't be able to do because we have missiles and they don't have the ability to stop them.
Or they pull a Missile Massacre and just throw all the missiles at the ship.
I assume it takes time for the laser to charge for each shot.
So you have chargeing, Colmating the beam and staying on target, then discharging until the target is knocked out, and then doing it all over again.
Either way, the laser is STILL far cheaper than the alternatives.
Well there are a number of other factors that come into play in a saturation attack. With anti-missile missile systems it doesn't really matter when the anti-ship missiles arrive on target. Eventually they will cause the target to expend all of its missiles. With a anti-missile laser, there is effectively unlimited ammo, so in order to defeat it with numbers you then need to add a layer of complexity to the attack, which then presents a vulnerability that can be exploited. The missiles would need to arrive at the target at the same time, or thereabouts. That's easy enough if you send a flight of aircraft up and have them fire together. But it's more difficult when you have, say, shore-launched missiles from different locations trying to coordinate with sea-launched missiles from ships at sea. Not a huge issue, but it could potentially come up.
Now, the advantage of the laser is that as long as you have enough power, you can keep adding lasers to your ship. Perhaps you can only build a laser to a certain power threshold, and that might necessitate keeping it on a target for several seconds in order to destroy it. But if you have 4 of them synced up, all hitting the exact same spot, you may only need a second to destroy it, maybe less. Imagine the number of lasers a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier could host. Not only that, but imagine the number of lasers a carrier GROUP could handle. This makes defeating them with numbers a much more difficult thing.
I remember that the supplier for the rail gun rounds was charging (what seemed like) a ridiculous amount per round, so the contract was cancelled or something. Maybe they were so expensive because some proprietary material was being used?