Israel deployed the first Iron Beam systems on Sunday, to complement its Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow multi-layered defense architecture.
Israel deployed the first Iron Beam systems on Sunday, to complement its Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow multi-layered defense architecture.
A report from an Israeli defense publicatiom says it’s “capable of 100kW of power focused on a spot the diameter of a coin at a distance of 10km”
So, definitely not an anti-satellite weapon from the ground, or even high-atmosphere, but it ought to work if they mounted one to another satellite.
That said, there’s no such thing as a defensive-only weapon. Laser weapons can be deadly to people too, and even at a fraction of their rated power output they could blind people instantly.
However the power requirements make them impractical for offensive applications and they can’t do much damage against concrete and the like, so there’s not much risk of harm if they were to become commonplace.
Depends on the nature of the offensive application. I expect we’ll see them used for a mass blinding terror attack in my lifetime.
Depending on the amount of atmosphere and whether it’s above or below ozone, it’s range will change.