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[...] This weapon, cobbled together from a half-dozen industrial cutting and welding lasers to produce a total power of only 30 kilowatts, was hardly the megawatt monster military scientists dreamed of decades ago to shoot down ICBMs. But it's a major milestone, advocates say, toward a future in which directed-energy weapons are deployed in real military engagements.
[...] Pentagon officials think the technology for high-energy lasers, like the one tested on the now-decommissioned Ponce, can serve a variety of roles on land and at sea: zapping the cheap rockets, artillery, drones, and small boats loaded with weapons that insurgents have deployed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, destroying an insurgent rocket costing around a thousand dollars can require a tech-laden Patriot interceptor costing $2 million to $3 million. By comparison, a laser shot from a fiber-laser weapon would cost only $1 in diesel fuel, officials claim.
[...] "The Defense Department has wanted a laser weapon system ever since the laser was invented," says Robert Afzal, senior fellow for laser and sensor systems at the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, in Bothell, Wash. "The key element has been to build this high-power electric laser small enough and powerful enough that we can put it on Army trucks, Air Force planes, and Navy ships, and not take everything [else] off" to make room for it.
Source: Fiber Lasers Mean Ray Guns Are Coming
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 10 2018, @12:31AM
Even on ships I'd bet the lasers are defensive rather than aggressive. For defense they may have the advantage in that they don't need to lead the target, so aiming is easier. OTOH, they'll probably be a bit slower to get into action.
I'm always dubious about anti-missile-missiles, but a laser might well fit that job reasonably well...if it could get into action quickly enough. Defending against a laser attack, though, is reasonably easy, so you'd need an extremely strong attack. Otherwise you have things like fog and dust shields that drastically reduce your effectiveness, probably to the point where a mirror defense is feasible. You need to be able to focus quite sharply to prevent a mirror from making your attack nearly worthless. Against an incoming missile, though, even if you don't disable the missile, you can change the airflow around it so much it misses it's target, and you can probably burn out any sensors it's using.
Now lasers would probably also work well in defending against drones, but again the problem is that you need to be able to get into action quickly.
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