Watch The U.S. Navy’s New Laser Weapon Take Out Two Ships

 

U.S. Navy’s New Laser Weapon

(US)

The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday that a new laser weapon deployed into Persian Gulf earlier this year performed seamlessly during testing that wrapped up in November, and declared the weapon a success.

Deployed for the first time aboard the U.S.S. Ponce in September, the Office of Naval Research released a video Wednesday of the LaWS (laser weapon system) taking out two test targets.

The U.S. Navy's unmanned Triton aircraft successfully completes its first cross-country flight, with more testing planned. Mana Rabiee reports.

See more photos and Video after the cuts..........

 

The “Vladivostok” warship, the first of two ships ordered by Russia from France, and delayed due to the conflict in Ukraine is taken for an outing at sea. Duration: 00:47  

 

Sailors were in for a heated battle near the Mighty Mo Friday for a Navy tradition, CPO Day.



“Laser weapons are powerful, affordable and will play a vital role in the future of naval combat operations,” Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, chief of naval research, said in a statement Wednesday. “We ran this particular weapon, a prototype, through some extremely tough paces, and it locked on and destroyed the targets we designated with near-instantaneous lethality.”

The laser performed flawlessly through a range of adverse weather conditions and took out moving targets both at sea and in the air, including small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Operated via a “video-game like controller,” the system is designed to go from non-lethal to lethal output to stun or destroy “asymmetrical threats” like small ships and UAVs.

At less than a dollar per shot, the cost-efficient 30-kilowatt weapon is the first of larger 100 and 150-kilowatt weapons to be deployed aboard later ships.

Source: Daily Caller