How does a laser guided bomb or missle hit where the laser is pointed and not the path of the laser or the guy holding the designator-thingie?
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Lasers don’t work how hollywood shows them
For the most part, unless its really dusty or smoky you will not see the beam of a visible light laser. You will only see it once it hits something and scatters.
The laser guided missile doesn’t hit the guy because the laser is a very narrow beam so unless he has the laser pointed right at the missile it can’t see the laser he’s holding. Similarly it won’t hit somewhere randomly along the path because there’s nothing significant bouncing the laser back up to it
It will head towards the target because the laser is hitting something a bit rough which is causing the laser light to scatter in all directions from that point and now some will make it to the sensor.
If it is really smoky then the laser can get scattered and cause the weapon to miss the target. Vehicles come with special smoke generators to be able to disrupt various frequencies of laser with their smoke
When laser light leaves the laser it is all going in the exact same direction. So it can only be seen by anyone not on that path after it starts bouncing off stuff so that photons can reach their eyes or sensors.
to a sensor that only sees laser light, it’s only the thing being hit by the laser that is visible.
Lasers, like all light, are only visible if they bounce off something and the light arrives at your eyes. Air is famously mostly transparent so a laser going through air isn’t going to leave much of a visible path. The point where it actually hits the object it is directed at will be much brighter so that is where the missile or bomb will aim for.
The laser itself will often have a shroud around it to reduce the visibility of the origin. Not mainly because the guided munition might confuse it for the target, but because an enemy could determine where you are by looking at a bright laser emitter. Lasers are also famously very directional so again the spot where it is pointed will be much brighter than the emitter unless it is pointed directly at the viewer. Unless the person using the designator is pointing it directly at the guided munition it shouldn’t be subject to confusion.
All of the above answers are wrong. If you do it wrong the bomb can find the person holding the laser designator thingies.
How this is avoided is the bomb is dropped in the direction of the target so the laser origin is hidden and the bomb is already moving toward the target.
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