I simulated 1200 Iranian missiles attacking air defences in a browser
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I've built airdefense.dev, which is able to simulate all kinds of ballistic missiles, one-way-attack drones like Shaheds, and most of the commonly deploy anti-air defence systems. All of this inside the browser. I've now added a scenario of the current attacks in the Middle East by Iran. It was quite the challenge to optimize it enough to not completely kill a common laptop, although it still runs best on a bit beefier systems.
HN · launched Mar 2, 2026 · 13 upvotes (top 33%) · 0 views
Niche: physics and engineering simulation software · 104 launches, 8 in the last 7 days ▲ +14% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Security
- Analytics & BI
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 104 launches in physics and engineering simulation software →
Could you build this?
Partial A visual 2D/3D browser simulation canvas is easily vibe-coded, but realistic ballistics trajectories, physics engines, radar detection models, and interceptor math require specialized domain simulation knowledge.
What it would actually take: A production version requires WebGL/Three.js or Canvas API combined with a custom physics engine running in Web Workers. The difficult aspects are implementing realistic orbital/sub-orbital ballistic trajectory equations (gravity, drag, staging), sensor cone simulation (radar cross-section, line-of-sight horizon calculation), and proportional navigation guidance algorithms for interceptor missiles. Building this realistically requires domain expertise in orbital mechanics, guidance navigation, and defense missile aerodynamics.
Discussion
2 comments analyzed.
Concerns raised: High CPU usage kills MacBook Air performance, Simulation of hundreds of missiles/drones not optimized
Feature requests: Improve performance optimization for laptops
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 69 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #21 of 70 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 110 days after the earliest competitor.
- Ironedome Commander · hn · 2026-03-31 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- PERSIAN STRIKE: RETRIBUTION · ph · 2026-09-18 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Chat with an exhaustive geopolitical simulation of the 2026 Iran War · hn · 2026-03-24 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.46
- Airmash · hn · 2026-09-16 · 10 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- Airmash · hn · 2026-09-20 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- Hormuz Signal · hn · 2026-09-24 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- Caladh: Anti-drone maritime defense · yc · 2026-11-04 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.40
- Airmash · ph · 2026-09-17 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.40
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