US Navy to develop killer lasers in bid to dominate future battles

The US Navy plans to develop a ship-board laser weapon that would swiftly incinerate enemy drones, sea vessels, aircraft and missiles through a 3-year deal with major arms maker Northrop Grumman, officials have said.

"This system employs multi-spectral target detection and track capabilities as well as an advanced off-axis beam director with improved fiber laser technologies to provide extended target engagement ranges,” said Tom Beutner, who directs the US Air Warfare and Weapons branch of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), as quoted in a Friday report by online military journal Scout Warrior.

“Improvements of high power fiber lasers used to form the laser beam enable the increased power levels and extended range capabilities," he added. 

The 12-month, $53-million accord with the ONR will develop a Laser Weapon System Demonstrator through three phases that include the initial design phase, ground-testing phase and then weapons testing at sea aboard a Navy Self Defense test ship, said a Northrop statement as cited in the report.

“The company will design, produce, integrate, and support the shipboard testing of a 150-kilowatt-class solid state (electric) laser weapon system,” added the statement. “The contract could grow to a total value of $91 million over 34 months if ONR exercises all of its contract options.”

According to the report, the US Navy has already deployed one laser system, called the Laser Weapons System, or LaWS, which has been operational for months.

LaWS, it adds, uses heat energy from lasers to disable or destroy targets fast, slow, stationary and moving targets.

The report further reveals that the system has successfully incinerated UAVs and other targets in tests shots, and has been operational in the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Poncean, an amphibious transport dock.

US sailors have been using the LaWS for daily targeting and training exercises as well as disabling and destroying some targets, said the report, citing service officials.

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