The Future Is Now: Navy To Deploy Lasers On Ships By 2014

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…

Raytheon’s Ship-Mounted Laser Weapon Incinerates a UAV in Flight

Raytheon revealed its next-gen directed energy weapon at the Farnborough Air Show, releasing video showing its Laser Weapons System (LaWS) — a six-laser weapon that focuses on a single target — engaging and then destroying an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) from the deck of a Navy vessel at sea. The tests conducted show the LaWS…