Ashoka The Great
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WASHINGTON: The US navy said it is preparing to roll out a sea-based laser weapon capable of disabling small enemy vessels and shooting down surveillance drones.
The laser system will be deployed in 2014, two years ahead of schedule, aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship retrofitted as a waterborne staging base, the navy said on Monday. Chief of naval research Admiral Matthew Klunder said the cost of one blast of "directed energy" could be less than $1.
"Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability," he said in a US navy statement.
The laser runs on electricity, so the weapon "can be fired as long as there is power," and is safer than carrying explosives aboard ships.
The New York Times noted the Pentagon had a "long history of grossly inflating" claims for experimental weapons. Navy officials had acknowledged that the prototype laser was not yet strong enough to bring down a jet fighter or a missile, although those remained the long-term targets, The Times reported. A March 14 report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Center said the new weapon was a potential game-changer in naval warfare.
link $1 per strike: US readies drone-killing laser weapon - The Times of India
The laser system will be deployed in 2014, two years ahead of schedule, aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship retrofitted as a waterborne staging base, the navy said on Monday. Chief of naval research Admiral Matthew Klunder said the cost of one blast of "directed energy" could be less than $1.
"Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability," he said in a US navy statement.
The laser runs on electricity, so the weapon "can be fired as long as there is power," and is safer than carrying explosives aboard ships.
The New York Times noted the Pentagon had a "long history of grossly inflating" claims for experimental weapons. Navy officials had acknowledged that the prototype laser was not yet strong enough to bring down a jet fighter or a missile, although those remained the long-term targets, The Times reported. A March 14 report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Center said the new weapon was a potential game-changer in naval warfare.
link $1 per strike: US readies drone-killing laser weapon - The Times of India
