The Future Is Now: Navy to deploys lasers on ships in 2014

The Pentagon has plans to deploy its first ever ship-mounted laser next year, a disruptive, cutting-edge weapon capable of obliterating small boats and unmanned aerial vehicles with a blast of infrared energy.

War, soon enough, will resemble Star Wars.

Navy researches say so far the laser is 12 for 12 in testing, destroying its targets 100 percent of the time. Officials who briefed the press on the laser gun -- which the Navy calls a "directed energy pulse weapon" -- say it has non-lethal functions too, and may be used to send warning signals to other vessels.

One of its major advantages, the Navy said, is its relatively low cost to operate. "Its weapon round costs about $1 to shoot," said Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of Naval Research. Although the unit cost is higher -- at around $32 million to produce.

There it is... Ability to take down aircraft, rounds moving close to the speed of light, rounds costing $1, and a 100% success rate...

Just imagine these lasers being installed on US soil... or even an array of them just off the coasts. I hope that the US Navy is keeping a close eye on this project and not allowing it to be traded with other countries.

Lasers!

www.foxnews.com...

Big deal....the military has been using these types of weapons covertly for however many years.

Now they make it public

Keeping in mind that funding Defense is one of the largest items in the Budget, US Navy ships have a history of experimenting with various forms technology. Deploying lasers will be the latest chapter following sound and electromagnetic cannon tests. Suffice to say, I wonder if the private blackop companies like Blackwater already have this stuff of if they will become middle-men to the international weapons market once ship lasers go on the retail block.

P.S. Blackwater's name changed to Xe and again to Academi.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

I think the laser worked here..only my opinion

Failed Launch

This technology has been working well for a while now from planes as well as ships.

reply to post by kuhl


Yeah i agree that was a laser shot

And yeah youre right Boeing made an airbourne laser platform out of a modified 747 some years ago, but they scapped it due to high operating costs. Sounds like they've gone for a ship mounted platform instead

reply to post by retirednature

Originally posted by retirednature
I hope that the US Navy is keeping a close eye on this project and not allowing it to be traded with other countries.

German Laser Tech Kills Drones from 1 Kilometer away

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Rheinmetall demos laser that can shoot down drones

Originally posted by MysteriousHusky
Keeping in mind that funding Defense is one of the largest items in the Budget, US Navy ships have a history of experimenting with various forms technology. Deploying lasers will be the latest chapter following sound and electromagnetic cannon tests. Suffice to say, I wonder if the private blackop companies like Blackwater already have this stuff of if they will become middle-men to the international weapons market once ship lasers go on the retail block.

P.S. Blackwater's name changed to Xe and again to Academi.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

edit on 8-4-2013 by MysteriousHusky because: addition

I have the same question... can private companies like Blackwater obtain such weapons. If I were to guess, I'd say no... considering the price of these weapon systems, the technological aspect, and the simple logistics of them trying to move the equipment around.

I hope that the Navy keeps this technology rather secure and doesn't allow for others to obtain it. It's not as if private industry and/or other countries can't develop this technology... but the US has the budget, it has seemingly unlimited resources, and so forth. Also, to consider the costs of developing this weapon, then building it, and having something to attach it to with sufficient energy to operate it... it would be hard for a private company to take on this project and be profitable. The NAVY isn't in it for profits, it replaces profits with attempts to reduce the cost to taxpayers. $1 a round that can take down aircraft and small ships!!! That's amazing.

Can the laser be deflected by a mirror? Or absorbed somehow?

From massive 747-mounted lasers... (recent past)

...to relatively compact ship-based units... (now)

...to tank mounted mobile systems... (near future)

...to lazookas... (?)

...to laserifles...(??)

not long now until we are totally into Buck Rogers territory.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Can the laser be deflected by a mirror? Or absorbed somehow?

Great Question!

With the creation of new materials seemingly every day, especially in the field of solar panels, I would imagine that one can be created that renders this technology useless. Could a paint containing organic materials, with a high tolerance for heat, that when hit crumbles slowly allowing crafts to take the hit for an extended period of time, maybe even long enough to complete a mission and return.

Not sure... But I'm willing to bet someone on ATS knows of something that would work.

reply to post by retirednature



Yeah i reckon they could get hold of something like that if they wanted to pay the bucks, but not really sure what they could/ would want to use it for?

descaling electronics didnt take us too many years, lasers have been around for a while, there's no reason why it would take long for military research firms to descale a weaponised laser.

it took to US government 7 years to put a man on the moon from scratch, and that was over 40 years ago.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Can the laser be deflected by a mirror? Or absorbed somehow?

as in laminated armor?

Laminated armor and modular celled/ honey comb design will be the workhorse for vehichle protection and survivability against lasers on Land sea and air. A laminated armor can deflect light frequency and modular built design will allow penetration without loss of integrity.


The only vehicles in our military strong enough to survive a sustained and multi vectored laser attack are our retired Battleships and possibly our armored vehicles.

Now this is all our Hard contact Defensive options but if we can get a vehicle protected by the new avionics class ionized plasma generators, you could possibly distort the lasers "signal" far enough enough away from the vehicle as to dissipate the heat/ energy before it comes in contact with the armor like the current RPG counter measures on our armored vehicles today, make contact with Warhead/ signal before its concentrated energy can Peirce armor.

reply to post by jjkenobi



Measures and Counter Measures Welcome to the evolution of weapons.

If the weapon was used against the failed missile launch it did its job impeccably as it was just assumed technical failure, why counter measure a measure you don't realise has been used.

Originally posted by retirednature

War, soon enough, will resemble Star Wars.

Except these aren't red/blue and dont go "pew pew".

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Can the laser be deflected by a mirror? Or absorbed somehow?

Let's find out....here hold this mirror for me.

Originally posted by Reaper62
reply to post by kuhl

 

Yeah i agree that was a laser shot

And yeah youre right Boeing made an airbourne laser platform out of a modified 747 some years ago, but they scapped it due to high operating costs. Sounds like they've gone for a ship mounted platform instead

You really believe that I guess, since you put it into words for us. There is nothing too expensive for the military if they deem it a successful weapons system. The B-2 bomber is a prime example even if not a very satisfactory weapon system. --Subsonic bomber? Get outta here!. I suspect you will find a laser weapon system fully operational if they ever start showing us the triangles at the airshows rather than their current policy of only given us glimpses with fly-bys..

[There is nothing too expensive for the military if they deem it a successful weapons system. The B-2 bomber is a prime example even if not a very satisfactory weapon system. --Subsonic bomber? Get outta here!.


How is the B-2 unsuccessful? The mission is putting bombs on unpleasant people far away. What's wrong with subsonic? Supersonic means much more fuel consumption and more detectability.

Back in the day, supersonic seemed like a good idea to be able to outrun/outfly intercepting aircraft. Today's missiles are sufficiently good that being supersonic doesn't matter as much, unless you could go substantially faster than a SR-71, and that technology is not really available (and would be horrendously expensive).

So as a system, flying subsonic and putting all the effort to reduce detectability is the best design in the current environment.

The future isn't now until I get my jetpack and hovercar and holodeck and mooncolony.

Originally posted by retirednature


Just imagine these lasers being installed on US soil... or even an array of them just off the coasts. I hope that the US Navy is keeping a close eye on this project and not allowing it to be traded with other countries.

Lasers!

Yeah fat chance, Britain will no doubt have them in a couple of years once the US irons out the kinks reason being I know someone here in the UK who worked on a similiar project but for Aircraft. In a few years we will be seeing lasers on USA and British planes and drones.

The biggest problem is energy to power the things and getting a small enough power unit for planes but I think there near to solving it.

If britain is close to produceing these weapons for planes then it most likey has the tec for this. But as I said we will lag behind the US by a few year as we can aford any problems or bugs so will wait till the tecs being ironed out.

Originally posted by Reaper62
reply to post by kuhl

 

Yeah i agree that was a laser shot

And yeah youre right Boeing made an airbourne laser platform out of a modified 747 some years ago, but they scapped it due to high operating costs. Sounds like they've gone for a ship mounted platform instead

Yup thats the project I think the guy I know worked on. I dont think it has been scraped. It just its gone on to a diffrent research phase (which Im not privy too).

Yes, the modified Boeing 747 used a chemical based laser, which means it has to "refuel" if it wants to continue to deliver its COIL payload, I believe it has like 20 shots before it has to land an re-up on its resources.
It really just heats up the outer alloy of lets say an ICBM an causes mechanical failure.
en.m.wikipedia.org...
Regarding the US Navy, I believe they are solid state lasers, course I would of like to see a FEL instead, (thank Split_Infinity!!) be installed instead.
en.m.wikipedia.org...
Solid State Laser on US Navy ship
www.huffingtonpost.com...