Science Fiction No More - Navy Ready To Deploy Laser System This Summer
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Some of the weapons that the Navy has plans to roll out sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, with lasers that are designed to track and shoot down high flying drones, and electric guns that fire projectiles at hypersonic speeds.
These aren’t planned for some hazy date in The distant future, though. The Navy plans to deploy its first shipboard laser sometime this year, and it intends to test an electromagnetic rail gun prototype aboard a vessel within The next two years.
For the Navy, it's not so much about getting to play with the latest and greatest tech toys as it is about simple economics. The fact is that Both of these technologies cost pennies on the dollar when compared to things like missiles and smart bombs, and these weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out.
"It fundamentally changes The way we fight," said Captain Mike Ziv, The program manager for the Naval sea systems Command, directed energy and electric weapon systems. “The Navy's laser technology has evolved to The point that a prototype to be deployed aboard The USS Ponce this summer can be operated by a single sailor,” he said.
The solid-state laser weapon system is designed to target what the Navy describes as "asymmetrical threats." Those threats include unmanned drones, speed boats and swarm boats, all potential threats to warships in the Persian Gulf, where the Ponce, a floating staging base, is set to be deployed.
Rail guns, which have been tested on land in Virginia, fire a projectile at six or seven times the speed of sound — enough velocity to cause severe damage. The Navy sees them as replacing or supplementing old-school guns, firing lethal projectiles from long distances. But no weapons system is perfect, and both of these still have their shortcomings.
Lasers tend to lose their effectiveness in anything but clear conditions, so events like rain or dust clouds, or even severe turbulence in the atmosphere can all have an impact. With the rail gun, the big shortcoming is the sheer amount of power (in The form of electricity) expended to actually launch the projectile, said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute.
"The Navy says it's found ways to deal With use of lasers in bad weather, but there's little doubt that the range of the weapon would be reduced by clouds, dust or precipitation," he said. Meanwhile, when looking at the rail gun’s power consumption problems, currently the only ship in the fleet with the power to operate one is the Navy's new destroyer, the Zumwalt, which is still under construction at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
The ship's gas turbine-powered generators can produce up to 78 megawatts of power, which is enough electricity to power a medium-size city, and certainly more than enough for a rail gun. One possible way around the power problem that engineers are currently looking at is a battery system that could be retrofitted to older ships in the fleet, that would enable them to fire a rail gun.
In any case, despite their various shortcomings, both weapon systems are highly prized because they serve to "get ahead of The cost curve," Ziv said. In other words, they're cheap.
The starting price for missiles aboard a U.S. Navy warship is a minimum of $1 million apiece (with more advanced missiles costing much, much more), making it cost-prohibitive to defend a ship in some hostile environments in which an enemy is using aircraft, drones, artillery, cruise missiles and artillery, Thompson said. With a laser operating on about 30 kilowatts of electricity — and possibly three times that in the future — the cost amounts to a few dollars per shot, Thompson said.
Just like in sci-fi movies, the Navy's laser is a beam of energy that can quickly burn through most any target and obliterate sensitive electronics.
Unlike The movie laser, the Navy’s version is invisible to The human eye. The targeting system locks onto the target, sending a beam of searing heat. "You see the effect on what you are targeting but you don't see the actual beam," Ziv said. While other nations are developing lasers of their own, the Navy’s design is far more advanced at this point.
“Most folks are stunned to learn the technology is ready for deployment,” Ziv said."
(H/T: Fox News)
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/194.html#LHFWRsrEIPHBgKPD.99
Share this article
Some of the weapons that the Navy has plans to roll out sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, with lasers that are designed to track and shoot down high flying drones, and electric guns that fire projectiles at hypersonic speeds.
These aren’t planned for some hazy date in The distant future, though. The Navy plans to deploy its first shipboard laser sometime this year, and it intends to test an electromagnetic rail gun prototype aboard a vessel within The next two years.
For the Navy, it's not so much about getting to play with the latest and greatest tech toys as it is about simple economics. The fact is that Both of these technologies cost pennies on the dollar when compared to things like missiles and smart bombs, and these weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out.
"It fundamentally changes The way we fight," said Captain Mike Ziv, The program manager for the Naval sea systems Command, directed energy and electric weapon systems. “The Navy's laser technology has evolved to The point that a prototype to be deployed aboard The USS Ponce this summer can be operated by a single sailor,” he said.
The solid-state laser weapon system is designed to target what the Navy describes as "asymmetrical threats." Those threats include unmanned drones, speed boats and swarm boats, all potential threats to warships in the Persian Gulf, where the Ponce, a floating staging base, is set to be deployed.
Rail guns, which have been tested on land in Virginia, fire a projectile at six or seven times the speed of sound — enough velocity to cause severe damage. The Navy sees them as replacing or supplementing old-school guns, firing lethal projectiles from long distances. But no weapons system is perfect, and both of these still have their shortcomings.
Lasers tend to lose their effectiveness in anything but clear conditions, so events like rain or dust clouds, or even severe turbulence in the atmosphere can all have an impact. With the rail gun, the big shortcoming is the sheer amount of power (in The form of electricity) expended to actually launch the projectile, said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute.
"The Navy says it's found ways to deal With use of lasers in bad weather, but there's little doubt that the range of the weapon would be reduced by clouds, dust or precipitation," he said. Meanwhile, when looking at the rail gun’s power consumption problems, currently the only ship in the fleet with the power to operate one is the Navy's new destroyer, the Zumwalt, which is still under construction at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
The ship's gas turbine-powered generators can produce up to 78 megawatts of power, which is enough electricity to power a medium-size city, and certainly more than enough for a rail gun. One possible way around the power problem that engineers are currently looking at is a battery system that could be retrofitted to older ships in the fleet, that would enable them to fire a rail gun.
In any case, despite their various shortcomings, both weapon systems are highly prized because they serve to "get ahead of The cost curve," Ziv said. In other words, they're cheap.
The starting price for missiles aboard a U.S. Navy warship is a minimum of $1 million apiece (with more advanced missiles costing much, much more), making it cost-prohibitive to defend a ship in some hostile environments in which an enemy is using aircraft, drones, artillery, cruise missiles and artillery, Thompson said. With a laser operating on about 30 kilowatts of electricity — and possibly three times that in the future — the cost amounts to a few dollars per shot, Thompson said.
Just like in sci-fi movies, the Navy's laser is a beam of energy that can quickly burn through most any target and obliterate sensitive electronics.
Unlike The movie laser, the Navy’s version is invisible to The human eye. The targeting system locks onto the target, sending a beam of searing heat. "You see the effect on what you are targeting but you don't see the actual beam," Ziv said. While other nations are developing lasers of their own, the Navy’s design is far more advanced at this point.
“Most folks are stunned to learn the technology is ready for deployment,” Ziv said."
(H/T: Fox News)
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/February19/194.html#LHFWRsrEIPHBgKPD.99
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