Fresh video of the US Navy combat laser

On Wednesday, the Office of Naval Research reported that experimental laser weapons were approved for use by the USS Ponce amphibious assault ship in the Persian Gulf. The LAWS system in question is part of a research program with a budget of $ 40 million. This is the first use of a laser gun on a ship.

The armament has been tested since September, and it has already been well described on Giktaims . The news is interesting because a new video was published with the work of the Laser Weapon System .

Permission to use means that if the ship and its crew are threatened, the laser being tested will be used to attack. The video above shows how this pattern of directed energy weapons damages the structure of the boat and unmanned aerial vehicle.
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It is noticeable that to control the gun operators use something similar to game controllers. The range of the laser cannon is about a mile (≈1.6 km). Apparently, the test was carried out at a power of 10 kW, but by 2016 it is planned to conduct tests in an operating mode of 30 kW.

Of course, this is not a science fiction weapon, so a ray of energy cannot be seen. Each shot costs about 59 cents. The beam is not afraid of wind and high levels of humidity. Damage can range from non-lethal blinding to destruction.

This type of weapon is designed to destroy small ships and boats, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles. The rules specifically state that LAWS should not be used against a person. In general, the development of these rules took a year .