[rootcage]

ATM the biggest problem for LRAD is cost, you fire a $12K Patriot missile to intercept what is either a $40 million jet or a $300 drone. This is revolutionary.

[ompaLompa]

A single patriot missile is estimated to cost $4 million USD

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patriot-missile-ukraine-explain...

[slt2021]

Directed energy (laser) will solve this issue, so that Patriots are only engaged for expensive planes, while lasers will destroy drones and cheap ballistic rockets

[SeanAnderson]

and the drones are apparently $50k not $300!

[xyzzyz]

$12k Patriot missile? You are off a couple whole orders of magnitude.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Maybe it’s a Black Friday deal.

At that price, even I would buy one!

[chaosite]

Iron Dome missiles reportedly cost $60k, and that is considered cheap.

[richardw]

Aren’t they using guns to fight cheap drones, at least for cities in Ukraine ? Eg Gepard.

[murkt]

Gepard is a specialized anti-air vehicle with a radar and pretty expensive shells. Very effective and cheaper than Patriot/NASAMS/IRIS-T missiles, but not really cheap. It’s mainly used on the outskirts of big cities, AFAIK.

When intercepting drones and rockets in a middle of nowhere, what’s often used is a regular machine gun that’s mounted on a pickup truck.

[15155]

What goes up must come down, including the unexploded ordnance these systems produce. Not ideal for use in populated environments.

[Maxion]

Ukraine is using everything that they can get their hands on - regardless of how effective it actually is.

Gepards have pretty short range in comparison to any missile system.

[rapsey]

Is this going to be less than $12K? Looks pretty expensive to me.

[momojo]

Are you saying this fills a niche?