Navy to deploy lazers on ships in 2014.

[powderman]

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/08/future-is-now-navy-to-deploys-lasers-on-ships-in-2014/
 
    The future is now: Navy to deploys lasers on ships in 2014  By Justin Fishel
Published April 08, 2013
FoxNews.com     
 

•    A solid state laser developed at the Naval Research Laboratory -- seen in the inset at left -- successfully shoots down a flying target, in this still image taken from video showing an exercise conducted by a technical team from the Naval Surface Weapons Center Dahlgren Division and managed & funded by ONR, Naval Sea Systems Command, OSD's High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office and supported by U.S. Fleet Forces Command.U.S. Navy
•    Jul. 30, 2012: The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory.U.S. Navy / John F. Williams
•    An unmanned drone bursts into flames after being targeted by a ship-mounted laser gun developed by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research.U.S. Navy
•    Jul. 30, 2012: The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif.U.S. Navy / John F. Williams
•    120730-N-PO203-088 SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Jul. 30, 2012) The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory. LaWS can be directed onto targets from the radar track obtained from a MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon system or other targeting source. The Office of Naval Research's Solid State Laser (SSL) portfolio includes LaWS development and upgrades providing a quick reaction capability for the fleet with an affordable SSL weapon prototype. This capability provides Navy ships a method for Sailors to easily defeat small boat threats and aerial targets without using bullets. (U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released)

Next Slide Previous Slide  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.
Navy officials announced Monday that in early 2014, a solid-state laser prototype will be mounted to the fantail of the USS Ponce and sent to the 5th fleet region in the Middle East for real-world experience.

 

'It operates much like a blowtorch ... with an unlimited magazine.'

- Navy official
Video released by the Navy shows the laser lock onto a slow-moving target, in this case an unmanned drone, which bursts aflame in mid-flight. The drone soon catches fire and crashes into the sea below.
"It operates much like a blowtorch ... with an unlimited magazine," one official said.
There are potential targets for the laser in the 5th fleet region, which includes the Persian Gulf, where Iran operates small surveillance drones and is known for swarming and harassing U.S. Navy ships with small, armored speed boats.
 
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.
Still, Navy officials say this is a major accomplishment when compared to the Airborne Laser, the Air Force's now cancelled project to put nose-mounted lasers on its aircraft. Those lasers cost nearly $1.5 billion a piece.
 
“This wasn’t demonstrated on a barge. This was on a naval warship. And the performance results were quite astounding,” Klunder said.
There are some concerns with the new technology, however. Navy officials expressed worries with its ability to fire in poor weather conditions and believe the 5th fleet region will be a great test of the weapon’s abilities. It's also unclear if the laser can effectively take down faster moving objects, such as fighter jets.
Officials also would not reveal the range of this new weapon, describing it as more of a "close in" system. Energy levels were also classified. If successful, it will eventually be painted Navy grey and mounted on top of the ship with the rest of the major weapons systems.
 
The Navy and other armed forces have been experimenting for years with these directed energy weapons -- laser guns to you and me. Such weapons could be the future of warfare.
In April 2011, the Navy conducted a more limited test of a similar weapon, blasting a boat from the water with a laser weapon. Nevin Carr, chief of Naval Research at the time, said this energy weapon would not handle all types of threats, however.
"To begin to address a cruise missile threat, we'd need to get up to hundreds of kilowatts," Carr said.
The Navy is working on just such a gun of course.
Called the FEL -- for free-electron laser, which doesn't use a gain medium and is therefore more versatile -- it was tested in February 2011, consuming blistering amounts of energy and burning through feet of raw steel.
 
The FEL will easily get into the kilowatt power range, experts say. It can also be easily tuned as well, to adjust to environmental conditions, another reason it is more flexible than the fixed wavelength of solid-state laser. But the Navy doesn't expect to release megawatt-class FEL weapons until the 2020s; among the obstacles yet to be overcome, the incredible power requirements of such weapons.
 
Also in the Navy's futuristic arsenal: a so-called "rail gun," which uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. Railguns are even further off in the distance, possibly by 2025, the Navy has said.
But lasers? Forget Buck Rogers and the 25th century. They’re here today.

[mcwoodduck]

Does this mean that the Chineese are going ot be flying navy attack fighter bombers wearing Disco ball Mirror camo protection?

[Oldshooter]

with an unlimited magazine

Guess feinstein wont want us having any of those. She and the "lady" from colorado just might not want that system to go forward. "Who needs unlimited Magazines"  "When they are empty they won't be of any use."    

[Ranger99]

i wonder when they'll go public
with the plasma guns?

[dwalk]

the USAF was shooting down target drones as early as 1965 with lasers.


very interesting weapon...but will it be able to catch incoming missiles/rounds like the Vulcan systems?


on the "Plus" side...the 'unlimited ammo' sounds good...

[buffermop]

Just in time to barbecue some Koreans. Just have to install a stick up you know where.

[mcwoodduck]

I understand the idea of the lazer and with the proper programing you can keep the dot in the target longenough to heat through the skin of an aircraft, missle, or warhead and cause the sensitive stuff inside like fuel, ammo, or explosive material to combust. 
My question is how often does a plane fly strait? 
During the Star Trek and Star Wars series I asked why they simply did not have a mirror to deflect the lazer?  Have you not seen the tests that show the lazer being bent here and there my a mirror?
So if you think about it you design an anti ship missle with a pyramid of mirrors that he laze would bounce off of and not heat up and cause problems for the warhead. 

[briarpatch]

A mirror is not a problem for lazers. They have developed a way around them or so I have read.
They are also able to keep the lazer on the target reguardless what it does. Have you ever watched a video of  an artillary round going down range and the camera stay it or an errant missle and the camera stay on it all the way.
The guys that make them are smartl, the guys that vote on them are dumb as mashed grapes.

[mcwoodduck]

I understand how you cna defeat a polished metal that is mirror like, but how do you defeat a glass mirror?  Especally if you use a Pyrex glass?  It was the windows on the space vehicles and made to handle the thousands of degrees and dispurse the heat. 
I understand the tracking software and am not concerned about how it would keep the lazer on a specific spot.  I argue the reaction time of a lazer guidance system vs a pilot that is launching a missle or lobbing a bomb.  And at that point do you leave the plane and focus on the bomb or kill the plane while the bomb falls?  Also tracking an object in a camera view is diferent than keeping a point of light on a certain spot of the skin of a plane long enough to burn through it. 

[briarpatch]

Got this from google



Despite their impressive capabilities, laser weapons do have some significant downsides. These can be taken advantage of to give the battlefield soldier a measure of defense against them.    MUNDANE COUNTERMEASURES    Because lasers are basically light, a number of everyday means can be used to diminish their effectiveness. Their performance can be significantly decreased or negated altogether by phenomena like fog, rain, snow, smoke, and so on, which can disperse or refract the weapon’s beam to ineffectualness, depending on how thick it is.     Reflective surfaces also present an obstacle, bouncing the beam off a potential target, but this is not as big an impediment as one would tend to think. Mirrors are usually frequency-specific; one that reflects visible light will not necessarily reflect UV or infrared wavelengths, making them vulnerable to weapons that can easily change their beam wavelength. Also, mirror quality is an issue. Most mirrored surfaces are not 100% smooth, meaning that some of the energy from the laser will be absorbed by it, probably melting or marring the reflective surface. Thus unless the mirror unusually tough and is smooth down to its component molecules, it probably won’t be able to reflect a laser hit in the same spot more than once or twice.    Also, with visible light lasers, objects that happen to have the exact same color as the beam can completely neutralize the laser, no matter what material its made of. Like mirrors, there’s still the problem of energy absorption eventually degrading such a defense, but something as simple as a cotton blanket with the right color can degrade or deflect a tank-destroying multi-megajoule beam. Manufacturers of non-tunable laser weapons would probably go out of their way to make sure the color of their laser beams were not that common in real life.    Reflective surfaces and same-color pigments would be of dubious value against laser weapons with changeable frequencies. Besides, having a highly-reflective or bright surface easily found by enemy sensors would be a profound disadvantage that may significantly outweigh any protection provided.   

[mcwoodduck]

OK.
thanks.