Raytheon has just
publicly revealed its next-gen directed
energy weapon at the Farnborough Air Show in Australia, and has released a
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 from the deck of a Navy vessel at sea.
"These engagements
validate the operational viability of the Phalanx-LaWS combination at
sea," said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile
Systems. "The Raytheon- Navy team demonstrated the systems' capability
to detect, track, engage and defeat dynamic targets at tactically
significant ranges in a maritime environment."
The tests, conducted
in May and June, show the LaWS illuminating and then heating the
underside of a drone aircraft shortly before it goes up in flames and
loses trajectory, plummeting into the ocean below. Guided by Raytheon's
Laser Close-in Weapon System (CIWS), a sensor suite that locks onto and
guides the energy weapon, LaWS shot down three similar drones during the
tests, which mark the first time a solid-state laser has shot down an
aircraft on the wing over open seas.
For the test, the LaWS was mounted on a
stable platform close to the Phalanx Block 1B mount. The Phalanx
operator used the Block 1B's surface mode to perform electro-optical
tracking and the system's radio frequency sensors to provide range data
to the LaWS. When the Phalanx acquired the UAV, the LaWS destroyed the
target.
LaWS
is a solid-state laser rather than a chemical laser, which means as
hazardous to handle and requires less energy to use. It's also smaller,
which makes it a lot more feasible to pack onto a naval vessel.
Solid-state lasers are also generally weaker than chemical lasers, and
that problem is compounded by the moist air in ocean climates, as that
moisture can absorb laser energy and weaken the beam. So proving this
solid-state technology can work at sufficient strengths over the ocean
is a serious milestone, says Popular Science in a recent post.
Another significant
point Raytheon made was to showcase that laser integrated into the
Navy's Phalanx anti-missile defense system -- a weapons system already
mounted on many naval vessels -- can hit a moving target from the deck
of a ship, which itself is moving and rolling along with the ocean.
The LaWS system will
likely find a home on other platforms, such as trailers, and it may get
more compact for more mobile applications.
SOURCES: Raytheon,
Popular Science
