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This fellow breaks down what would be needed for an effective orbital DEW as well as the challenges that would need to be overcome.

Spoiler: Laser based weapons are doable but, he doesn't think this was done in Hawaii.

Personally, I'm not sure DEW was used in Hawaii but, I do know that the government is hiding something and likely have weapons tech beyond the parameters discussed here. The limitations however are due to the nature of the universe so even if the gov has better this video should still apply. The question becomes how did they overcome the limitations and to what degree.

This fellow breaks down what would be needed for an effective orbital DEW as well as the challenges that would need to be overcome. Spoiler: Laser based weapons are doable but, he doesn't think this was done in Hawaii. Personally, I'm not sure DEW was used in Hawaii but, I do know that the government is hiding something and likely have weapons tech beyond the parameters discussed here. The limitations however are due to the nature of the universe so even if the gov has better this video should still apply. The question becomes how did they overcome the limitations and to what degree.

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[–] • 2 pts (edited )

He even talks about focus later on.

But I'll criticize the idea that the system can know the effects of the atmosphere that quickly and change the focus etc. thousands of times a second. Unless they've got a real-time camera on the ground that can see the beam shape and 2D power density they can't meaningfully adjust the optics at the source to counter the atmospheric effects. (EDIT: I'm wrong, they can do this)

General distance to target and focus, yeah, I agree. That's a non-issue (the system should know its exact location in orbit, and the target location relative to the system).

[–] • 2 pts

they can't meaningfully adjust the optics at the source to counter the atmospheric effects.

Actually they can and it's old technology. They use an "aiming" laser and then record the distortion of the reflected signal. It was first created for telescopes to compensate for atmospheric distortion. Between beam steering and this, it's a gimme.

[–] • 2 pts (edited )

EDIT: found the entry .

[–] • 2 pts

Yes. Everything in the atmosphere reflects the signal back. It's simply varying degrees of signal to noise. They've had this technology for decades.

random video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7TWAJ_bnhM

Now keep in mind, technically they could focus after they fire if the duration is longer than transit time. In turn using the weapon's reflection as the corrective signal. And if it's a pulse weapon, they can always use a modified signal from previous pulses. In addition to the fact that plasma is frequently created by this class of weapon which significantly reduces scatter and reflection.