No, I think I misunderstood your comment. Apologies for that, but I still think that the problem is not so much of a show stopper as you do.Ron5 wrote:...hundreds of millions over a couple of decades, the USN killer laser at sea on USS Ponce is still only claimed too be able to track slow moving UAV's and boats for the necessary fractions of a second time to blow them up. And that's in the calm waters and clear air of the Persian Gulf. The chances of a Starstreak operator tracking an anti-ship missile for the entire engagement on a murky afternoon in the North Sea seem to me to be less than zero.
Apologies in advance if I misunderstood your comment.
As I understand it, earlier Seawolf did have an optical mode for use against low-level targets but that was later removed when they got a radar system that could distinguish targets through the surface clutter.donald_of_tokyo wrote:Is'nt it the same for SeaWolf? Why SeaWolf can kill ASM?
Either way, stabilising a simple, light laser like the guidance laser for HVM/LMM from a ship is easy. We have stabilised sights on armoured vehicles that are working against a much more difficult environment. Ship movements are, due to their size, slow. The surface perturbations that cause them tend to be regular and predictable.
In addition, the maximum range you are working to is 8km, reducing the angular accuracy you need.
It isn't continuous illumination either. It just has to be on target when the darts get there. Which isn't a very long time.
I wouldn't want to rely on it in an AShM role, but it could work.