Navy Arms Destroyers With Drone Incinerating Laser

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Incinerating enemy drones at the speed of light, intercepting incoming anti-ship missiles, or even burning holes through the hull of an enemy warship. These are all operations the Navy envisions ship-integrated lasers performing in the very near future.

The service has been quite intense in its testing, developing, and fast-tracking ship-fired lasers to war, as they have been operational for many years now.

Shipboard Lasers

Years ago, the Navy pioneered and then deployed LAWs (Laser Weapons Systems), a ship-integrated weapon that fired from a U.S. Navy Transport Dock called the USS Ponce.

In more recent years, the Navy has been testing and developing a number of newer, far more powerful lasers. The service is now arming its fleet of warships with a cutting-edge laser system called HELIOS, for High Energy Laser with Optical-Dazzler and Surveillance.

HELIOS can be set to attack, incinerate, or destroy targets. It can also be scaled to merely damage or disable an enemy platform such as a drone or helicopter. The weapon has both offensive and defensive maritime combat applications, though it also introduces a significant optical component, meaning it can function as a sensor to illuminate, light up, or track targets for surveillance missions.

Ship-fired lasers can introduce an entirely new, and highly impactful, tactical advantage to U.S. Navy warship offensive and defensive operations.

Lasers could also enable surface warships to close in more fully upon enemy positions, given that deck-mounted guns could be supplemented by laser weapons attacking at the speed of light and engineered to pinpoint narrow target areas with precision-guidance technology.