(Washington, D.C.) When the Navy is ready to deploy a new 60kw ship-fired laser weapon from a Destroyer later this year, maritime attack strategy and tactics will enter new dimensions of massive warfare on the open seas.
Later this year, the Navy reports, the emerging High-Energy Laser with Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) will arm an Arleigh Burke Flight IIA DDG 51 destroyer, following additional land and ocean testing and assessments.
This means that Navy destroyers will operate with the ability to incinerate enemy drones with great precision at the speed of light, stunning, burning or simply disabling them.
Not only are lasers quiet, low-cost, scalable and precise, but perhaps of even greater significance, they fire at the speed of light. Pure speed, when it comes to ocean warfare, is increasing vital as new technologies enter the sphere of Naval warfare, greatly changing the tactical equation.
Modern Maritime warfare, as described in the U.S. Navy’s just released CNO NAVPLAN strategy document, is becoming increasingly dispersed, networked and driven by new levels of AI-enabled autonomy.
“Ubiquitous and persistent sensors, advanced battle networks, and weapons of increasing range and speed have driven us to a more dispersed type of fight …. keeping ahead of our competitors requires us to rapidly field state-of-the art systems. Speed matters,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday writes in the just released CNO NAVPLAN.
Laser Changing Tactical Dynamics
How might ship-fired laser weapons change tactical dynamics and strategies when it comes to Maritime warfare?
