Laser Weapon System On The USS Ponce
With a flick of a videogame-like controller, the sailor locks the laser onto the drone in mid-air. Within seconds, there’s a flash of light and sparks, and the drone nosedives straight into the ocean, the latest victim of the U.S. Navy’s new Laser Weapon System (or LaWS). The laser, mounted on the USS Ponce, has been stationed in the Persian Gulf for months, and today the Office of Naval Research released video of the first successful, live-fire tests there. Watch below:
“Laser weapons are powerful, affordable and will play a vital role in the future of naval combat operations,” Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, chief of naval research, said in a press release. “We ran this particular weapon, a prototype, through some extremely tough paces, and it locked on and destroyed the targets we designated with near-instantaneous lethality.”
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