U.S. Navy Laser Weapon to be deployed in 2014

[Sledgstone 8,672]

 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/us-navy-laser-weapon-deployed-uss-ponce-2014_n_3043244.html

 

The US Navy said it is preparing to roll out a sea-based laser weapon capable of disabling small enemy vessels and shooting down surveillance drones.

The laser system will be deployed in 2014, two years ahead of schedule, aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship retrofitted as a waterborne staging base, the Navy said Monday.

Chief of Naval Research Admiral Matthew Klunder said the cost of one blast of "directed energy" could be less than $1.

"Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability," he said in a US Navy statement.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command successfully tested high-energy lasers against a moving target ship and a remotely piloted drone.

"The future is here," ONR official Peter Morrision said.

"The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords."

The laser runs on electricity, so the weapon "can be fired as long as there is power," and is a lot safer than carrying explosives aboard ships.

 

The laser weapon is not yet powerful enough to take out jets or missiles and it is only going to be equipped onto a transport ship for now. I have a feeling that once they get these laser weapons more powerful and start deploying them onto nuclear powered aircraft carriers, those carriers would completely own the air. Imagine a nuclear powered laser. I imagine it instant destroying ships or airplanes with precision blasts.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I'll be impressed when it takes out missiles, but right now it seems kinda pointless....

 

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/425349/april-10-2013/navy-laser-technology