The U.s. army wants lasers to add to the arsenal of his fleet. The first ship in 2014 a laser system on board should get that small boats and unmanned aircraft must be able to destroy.
The first navy ship that with the laser should be equipped, the USS Ponce, a transport ship that is also a supportive role for minesweepers holds. At the beginning of 2014 would be the Ponce about the laser system to go and be deployed in the Middle East. The laser is at the back of the ship, mounted and should targets be supplied through the Phalanx system or other radar systems. The weapon would then be a small boat or an unmanned aircraft such as drones for reconnaissance is used, it should be able to destroy. During testing found the system to twelve of the twelve testdoelen.
The laser, which by the Naval Sea Systems Command, the Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, was called, consists of a solid state laser. The target to which the navy, the laser, the concentrated infrared light of the laser is so hot that it burns or explodes. However, it would be a difficult, fast-moving targets, such as a fighter jet or missile, to hit and the performance in bad weather, would probably be disappointing. Or would the cost of a shot is very low: a salvo costs only one dollar. The laser itself costs moreover, 32 million dollars, a fraction of the previously tested laser systems for aircraft: it cost one and a half billion dollars.
More powerful electronic weapons are still in development. So would the army work on FEL, a Free Electron Laser, which is more energy than the solid-state laser at a target release. One of the stumbling blocks in the development is providing the energy for the weapon is required. Also would be working on a railgun. Both of these techniques would, however, only in the course of the next decade is ready for use.