US Navy deploys laser weapon system that’s fired with ‘video game-like controller’

The US Navy has announced that it is moving ahead with plans to deploy the first ever combat laser weapon. Late this summer, USS Ponce — a fairly unextraordinary amphibious ship (pictured below) — will be outfitted with the Laser Weapon System (LaWS). LaWS will be put through some at-sea testing in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, after which it will be capable of shooting down drones or disabling small attack boats (including suicide bombing missions) at an energy cost of just $1 per shot. Rather fittingly for a futuristic weapons system, LaWS will be fired using a “video game-like controller.”

US Navy deploys laser weapon system that’s fired with ‘video game-like controller’





Talk about the best bang for your buck this baby looks rather promising i wonder if it can do what is says on the tin?

reply to post by andy06shake


I can't wait until they start slapping these bad boys onto "frickin' sharks".

Awesome find, SnF OP!

reply to post by andy06shake


Finally, all my wasted years of playing video games will pay off and I will be in high demand as a crack military weapons operation specialist.

reply to post by parad0x122


Says it's capable of shooting down and destroying UAVs and small attack boats, i wonder what it would do to a person(just curious not sick)?

reply to post by andy06shake


Ive known about LaWS for a while now, and I'm having a hard time believing that its just now being deployed.

As far as what it would do to a human, the same thing any high energy weapon would do to a human... Melt right through them... lol

reply to post by andy06shake


Something kinda like this:

Laser tech pretty much renders missiles and missile threats obsolete and a thing of the past, a larger land based version or space based version would be enough to take out incoming ballistic missiles working in tandem with current tech, although I don't quite think a "single zap" destroying laser has yet been released but I'm sure it's in R&D

kinda funny the part about " operated through video game like controllers". Seems like that would be a vary archaic controller at this point. Aren't we into mind control at this stage?

andr3w68
reply to post by andy06shake

 

Ive known about LaWS for a while now, and I'm having a hard time believing that its just now being deployed.

As far as what it would do to a human, the same thing any high energy weapon would do to a human... Melt right through them... lol

It's many decades old in fact, I'm pretty sure this tech was developed as part of the Star Wars program, space based lasers etc

There is evidence to suggest that this tech was deployed early 2000 in Iraq

God Bless America



Been waiting to use this picture I made in a post

yay what a great future we will have

Lasers are all fun and games until they start blasting whoever they feel like from space. Drones will be out of commission before long now seeing as this is the obviously cheaper method of frying people from a million miles away.

If this is old enough to declassify I wonder what amazing weapons they have that we will never know about

reply to post by PsychoEmperor


It's probably full of Japanese electronics and European optics so more like god bless the military industrial complex!

theyknowwhoyouare If this is old enough to declassify I wonder what amazing weapons they have that we will never know about

I cant wait for the cloak to become an every day device.

reply to post by andy06shake


Well we knew that was coming, didn't we?


Good catch. F&S

andr3w68
reply to post by andy06shake

 

Ive known about LaWS for a while now, and I'm having a hard time believing that its just now being deployed.

Same here.
German Reinmetall's high-energy laser weapon-system is even publicly known at least since 2011/12.
Then again, "publicly known" is naturally always a few years late.

theyknowwhoyouare
yay what a great future we will have

Lasers are all fun and games until they start blasting whoever they feel like from space. Drones will be out of commission before long now seeing as this is the obviously cheaper method of frying people from a million miles away.

If this is old enough to declassify I wonder what amazing weapons they have that we will never know about

Ending a nuclear ballistic missile threat is a good thing IMO

TritonTaranis

theyknowwhoyouare
yay what a great future we will have

Lasers are all fun and games until they start blasting whoever they feel like from space. Drones will be out of commission before long now seeing as this is the obviously cheaper method of frying people from a million miles away.

If this is old enough to declassify I wonder what amazing weapons they have that we will never know about

Ending a nuclear ballistic missile threat is a good thing IMO

Not really.... without those nukes it would be game on for all the war hungry nations of the world. Nuclear warheads have done a wonderful job of keeping the world mostly stable for this long.

Breaking News... this just in...

Combat lasers defeated by $10 bathroom mirror.

reply to post by WeAre0ne


Don't you think "They" have reflected on that particular problem? LoL

reply to post by PsychoEmperor


World war champions? You come in at the last min and claim to have won it LOL

Couldn't quite manage Vietnam though.