Re:US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time
by Symmetry on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @12:16PM
(#7259399)
I'd assume that even with a laser they'd do most of the targeting work with a radar, in which case it's pretty easy to distinguish the target from the background. Just look at the Doppler shifts of the returns and don't worry about anything that isn't moving with respect to the radar. Missiles might indeed hide below the horizon on their approach, but that makes them just as invisible to visual ship-based detection as it does to radar.
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Re:US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time
by UnoriginalGuy on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @12:52PM
(#7259646)
Anti-ship missiles are designed specifically to make for small radar cross-sections and to fly below radar range.
Re:US Navy ready to deploy laser for first time
by Symmetry on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @03:44PM
(#7260910)
Yes, but "below radar range" in this context means below the horizon, which even from the top of a ship is only 15 km away or so. At mach 4 a Sunburn can cover that distance pretty quickly. I'm sure the low radar visibility make a big difference when hiding from AWACs on the approach, but since radar returns scale with the fourth power of distance I don't see how a missile could possibly have such a low cross section as to be invisible at as close a range as 15 km.