Department of Defense (DOD) development work on high-energy military lasers, which has been underway for decades, has reached the point where lasers capable of countering certain surface and air targets at ranges of about a mile could be made ready for installation on Navy surface ships over the next few years. More powerful shipboard lasers, which could become ready for installation in subsequent years, could provide Navy surface ships with an ability to counter a wider range of surface and air targets at ranges of up to about 10 miles. These more powerful lasers might, among other things, provide Navy surface ships with a terminal-defense capability against certain ballistic missiles, including the anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that China is believed to be developing. The Navy and DOD are developing three principal types of lasers for potential use on Navy surface ships-fiber solid state lasers (SSLs), slab SSLs, and free electron lasers (FELs). The Navy's fiber SSL prototype demonstrator is called the Laser Weapon System (LaWS). Among DOD's multiple efforts to develop slab SSLs for military use is the Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD), a prototype laser weapon developed as a rapid demonstration project. The Navy has developed a lower-power FEL prototype and is now developing a prototype with scaled-up power. These lasers differ in terms of their relative merits as potential shipboard weapons.
Navy Shipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile Defense: Background and Issues for Congress
2010
54 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Marine Engineering , Shipboard , Laser weapons , Naval vessels , Antiship missiles , Defense systems , Ocean surface , Demonstrations , Military equipment , Prototypes , Free electron lasers , Scaling factor , Department of defense , Congress , China , Solid state lasers , Guided missiles , Anti-ship ballistic missile , Asbm(Anti-ship ballistic missile) , Laser weapon system , Laws(Laser weapon system) , Mld(Maritime laser demonstration)