The PanEuropeans have invented the Laser Turret..,

[HeatDeath]

If the Combine doesn't move fast we'll have a Laser Turret gap!

Their next step will undoubtedly be mounting it in a tower.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/07...over-1km-away/

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/st...-than-1km-away

[Buzzardo]

Not to worry. The Navy is on it. And the Combine version will be on a vehicle - admittedly a ship, but a ship is a vehicle. :)

[ladue]

If you think about it, a "beach defense" would be nearly impossible in the OGRE universe. You have to presume that naval mounted lasers are standard issue there. You mount lasers on top of submarines; surface a number of them near the area you want to attack; and pound the defenses from well out of their range. The obvious defense would be Laser towers and turrets, but you force their hand with several waves of cruise missiles so your lasers are killing his lasers while he's killing cruise missiles. Naval forces and mobile inland reserves are really the only practical defenses. The beaches are just too exposed once you have line of sight weaponry.

[DSumner]

Originally Posted by ladue

If you think about it, a "beach defense" would be nearly impossible in the OGRE universe. You have to presume that naval mounted lasers are standard issue there. You mount lasers on top of submarines; surface a number of them near the area you want to attack; and pound the defenses from well out of their range.

I could see a number of defenses. It'd have to be a layered approach with ships/drones patrolling offshore, combined with an offshore sensor network. As you get closer to shore, more patrols. Along the coastline, nuclear mines, patrol drones, naval laser batteries, anti-ship missiles, extensive ECM/ECCM networks, sensors, and active countermeasures such as aerosol sprays, smoke, etc., as directed energy weapons don't do well against them.

[Suboptimal00]

Originally Posted by DSumner

anti-ship missiles

That alone gives equal armament potential. The mass advantage of a beach over any ship then returns their advantage. The ships, of course, still have their key advantage, mobility. In the absence of some offensive or defensive system one can mount that the other can't, it seems like beach defense would be roughly as hard with Ogre technology as our own.

[DSumner]

Originally Posted by Suboptimal00

That alone gives equal armament potential. The mass advantage of a beach over any ship then returns their advantage. The ships, of course, still have their key advantage, mobility. In the absence of some offensive or defensive system one can mount that the other can't, it seems like beach defense would be roughly as hard with Ogre technology as our own.

Anti-ship missiles are one of the reasons the US, and other countries, start to develop ways to launch over the horizon amphibious assaults.