> That's not how it would be in a war. Their usage would be exactly zero, and then basically continuous. Not bursty at all - more like off, and then full on.
IDK, I see it quite likely that even close to single-shot capability would be good enough. For the kind of a war where you need defence from ICBMs or hypersonic missiles, the active phase of that war has always been expected to last something like half an hour, as both sides launch all the missiles due to the 'use-it-or-lose-it' mechanic where your launch platforms expect to be destroyed by incoming fire and have to spend all their munitions before enemy missiles arrive; and the active phase of a missile defence is even shorter - a few minutes, as most of the arsenal would be launched in a single wave to overwhelm any defences.
So if a satellite needs a month of charging to top up its batteries after some test firing, that's as good as if it needed just an hour; it should be optimized for peak performance of a single relatively short burst of shots, and one with a very fast reaction time - you don't get five minutes of warning to start and spin up a huge generator.
IDK, I see it quite likely that even close to single-shot capability would be good enough. For the kind of a war where you need defence from ICBMs or hypersonic missiles, the active phase of that war has always been expected to last something like half an hour, as both sides launch all the missiles due to the 'use-it-or-lose-it' mechanic where your launch platforms expect to be destroyed by incoming fire and have to spend all their munitions before enemy missiles arrive; and the active phase of a missile defence is even shorter - a few minutes, as most of the arsenal would be launched in a single wave to overwhelm any defences.
So if a satellite needs a month of charging to top up its batteries after some test firing, that's as good as if it needed just an hour; it should be optimized for peak performance of a single relatively short burst of shots, and one with a very fast reaction time - you don't get five minutes of warning to start and spin up a huge generator.