Compass Points - Use the Laser!
Easy answer for drone attacks.
Compass Points - Use the Laser!
Easy answer for drone attacks.
January 23, 2024
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When drones attack, one easy and inexpensive answer is to use a laser cannon. The laser cannon is accurate, reliable, fast, and cost effective. Sitting around a conference table in a wargame or theoretical exercise, the laser cannon is the best answer.
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On the other hand, for example, if forces in the Red Sea or in Ukraine are under actual -- not theoretical -- attack from drones, the situation is different. Face down in the dirt or on the deck while a drone attacks? In that case, the laser cannon is worthless, because the laser cannon does not exist.
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It is dangerous to divest weapons, equipment, and capabilities available now for advanced systems that may be available someday. The fight is now.
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Today, US Navy ships in the Red Sea are under fire from Houthi drones and missiles. Defense News reports, "Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?"
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WASHINGTON — The head of U.S. Naval Surface Forces and other brass have praised the work of Navy destroyers operating in the Red Sea, where they have since October shot down scores of attack drones and missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
But applause from Vice Adm. Brendan McLane and other leaders has been paired with frustrations that warships like the Carney, Gravely, Mason, Laboon and Thomas Hudner are fighting without a potential key asset: the long-planned and ever-elusive laser.
-- Defense News
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What is the Navy using now to fight the drones and missiles? As Military View reports: "A Two Million Dollar Missile Versus a $2,000 Drone."
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With drones and missiles continuing to proliferate on the modern battlefield, even the US cannot afford for long to pay millions per hostile drone.
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Experts emphasize the need for the Department of Defense to explore cost-effective alternatives for air defense. As former Defense Department official Mick Mulroy suggests, the U.S. must adopt systems aligned with the costs adversaries incur, ensuring a more balanced and sustainable approach.
-- Military Views
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What can be done against drones right now? One answer is to make use of the proven weapons at hand.
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Ukrainian forces have units known as mobile fire groups, they specialize in hunting down russian unmanned aerial vehicles on the frontline and in the rear. One of these units had an interview with ArmyInform, soldiers sharing their experience and targets they took down.
Air defense operators of the Wild Duck group from the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade work in a team of three, use their M2 Browning 12.7mm machine gun mounted on an ordinary pickup truck to take down UAVs of various types.
--Defense Express
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Instead of waiting on a laser cannon or using a two-million-dollar missile against a drone, Ukraine forces are destroying drones with a few .50 caliber rounds.
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Technology always takes longer to arrive, is often scarce and expensive when it does arrive, and never puts an end to bloody, close combat. Over the last few years, the Marine Corps traded proven combined arms capabilities for the promise of future technology. Now, in the battles in Ukraine and Gaza, the future has arrived. Robust combined arms are needed more than ever.
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Compass Points salutes the ingenuity and skill of the Ukraine units using ordinary machine guns to provide air defense against incoming drones. Compass Points also salutes all those in the Marine community and in Congress working to update and restore Marine combined arms capabilities. When the laser cannon finally arrives, and if it is a good fit for Marines, let's add that too.
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Defense News (defensenews.com) 01/22/2024
Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?
By Colin Demarest, Megan Eckstein and Geoff Ziezulewicz
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Military View (militaryview.com) 12/22/2023
A Two Million Dollar Missile Versus a $2,000 Drone
By Kedy
https://militaryview.com/a-two-million-dollar-missile-versus-a-2000-drone/
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Defense Express (en.defence-ua.com) 01/19/2024
How M2 Browning Saved a Ukrainian Artillery System From russian Lancet
See below: Michael Doran ..Hudson Institute.....”Star Wars vs Mad Max” . This goes directly to the failures of FF2030....the USMC MUST RETURN TO BEING A MAD MAX MAGTF W A BALANCED OFFENSIVE AGILE COMBINED ARMS TEAM! Isn’t the current FD2030 team going to do a presentation at the Hudson Institute? Michael needs to be invited.
This quote is from a recent article in Tablet Magazine regarding the IDF Failure on Oct 7, 2023.
A newly published investigative piece in Israel’s daily Yedioth Ahronoth recounts the blow-by-blow failure of Israel’s army on that fateful morning. How could a low-tech, relatively small terror organization outsmart a high-tech giant with a modern state behind it. Mike and Gadi discuss the main findings: how Hamas overwhelmed the IDF’s monitoring systems and cut off its chain of command; how IDF HQ and air force were forced to fall back on cellphones and Telegram channels for a picture of the battlefields; why the Israeli air force was so slow to respond; and, above all, how an intelligence service, capable of pinpointing a specific individual and taking him out in a surgical attack in Beirut, failed to detect a ragtag army of 2,000 terrorists practicing for an invasion right under Israel’s nose.
Evidently, Hamas understood exactly how the IDF operates, while the IDF made erroneous speculations about Hamas’ intentions at the expense of studying its M.O. and its capabilities. “
One thought has always puzzled me. Could the Marine Corps have adopted the anti-ship mission in addition to its other missions without sacrificing its combined arms capability? Could the Marine Corps have added anti-ship missiles without getting rid of arty, armor, infantry, and other assets? Was this an economic decision?
Marines train for amphibious, heliborne, mech, and other operations. Why not just add in the antishipping mission? Just a thought.