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Again, I don't think reflective coatings are a lone solution, but I do think that they enhance other tactics, and as such, are a key aspect of defense in depth. However, those contributions are key to those other systems working at all. For example, the typical bullet rotates at ~200,000RPM. This is about 3,000 revolutions a second, or about 300 microseconds a revolution. Figuring a larger projectile could only rotate about a tenth of the rate, we get about 3 milliseconds per rotation on a shell. At 3 seconds per revolution, I suspect that we're inside of the timing windows that talking about the efficiency of energy absorption and dissipation in the coating that the laser is striking is relevant, and we can begin to talk about the laser energy being dissipated over more than a single fixed point. However, I suspect that such tactics (as high velocity spinning) can only mitigate the effects of the lasers and not stop them in isolation. It needs to be tied together with a coherent plan to dissipate the energy that areas do absorb and scatter the beam's focus using ablated coating. In terms of energy absorption rates, energy dissipation rates, and ablative properties, picking the right coating for your mortars trying to pierce laser defenses is essential. tl;dr: It's a synergy thing, since the low-absorption coating reduces the demands on screwing up their targeting, and screwing up their targeting reduces the demand on a protective coating. |