USN's Laser Weapon Unveiled

[tomahawk6]

The video at the link shows the laser destroying two ships.Larger lasers are under development.Just .59 per shot.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102258123

 

[Staff Weenie]

Is that cheaper than a 5.56 round?

The question, is how well does it operate in bad weather?

 

[tomahawk6]

Dont leave port without some missiles.

 

[Staff Weenie]

I know the light isn't in the visible part of the spectrum, so I hope they've added speakers to it so that it makes a huge 'ZAP' sound when it fires!  ;D

 

[BorisK]

I know the light isn't in the visible part of the spectrum, so I hope they've added speakers to it so that it makes a huge 'ZAP' sound when it fires!  ;D

Or just get one of these birds and a microphone (fun stuff starts at 0:10 seconds)

http://youtu.be/AxU45X4qvMw

 

[BorisK]

New footage of testing I came across :

http://youtu.be/mPbRn7a011Q

 

[a_majoor]

Laser weapons becoming larger and more powerful. I like the USN approach to getting a 300kW laser: gang several smaller lasers together. (Even if you blow a fuse, you still have many lasers still firing on target). An interesting graphic on the site shows just how much laser power is estimated to attack and destroy certain types of targets. A 300kW laser seems to be in the range to effectively attack most military targets:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/03/us-could-ramp-up-miliary-lasers-by-ten.html

US could ramp up miliary lasers by ten times to 300 kilowatts by 2018

In three years the US military could have a prototype 300 kilowatt laser weapon. This would be ten times the power of the 30 kilowatt laser being tested on the USS Ponce. Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. of Breaking Defense reports this from a Lockheed engineer.

The Army’s High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator(HEL MD) will improve to a 60 kw system late in 2016. This is up from the current 10 kilowatt laser. Today's technology will enable fiber lasers to scale to 300 kw. Near term improvement to the underlying technology will enable well beyond 500 kw lasers.

Solid state slab lasers (being developed by the Navy and Northrop) should be able to scale to a total power of 300 kW. This will not require any technological breakthroughs. Supporters of slab SSLs such as Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD) believe they could eventually be scaled up further, to perhaps 600 kW. Slab SSLs are not generally viewed as easily scalable to megawatt power levels.

At 30 to 35 percent efficiency — the current cutting edge with fiber-optic lasers — 300 kw of output would require just under a megawatt of electrical power.

The Navy’s LaWs simply sticks together six commercial cutting lasers and points them all at the same target. Lockheed’s technology goes further and combines all the lasers into a single, coherent beam, which allows much sharper focus at long ranges.