As most of the Pentagon Development
programs wring their hands with budget worries, there is one area of research that is celebrating a banner week/month—Navy lasers. "I think directed-energy weapons will change the dynamic of warfare at sea," Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, told a crowd at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Conference and Exposition this week.
It made international news this week when the Navy's Chief of Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, announced the 2014 deployment of a warship to the Persian Gulf—one equipped with a new laser weapon that can burn unmanned aerial vehicles out of the sky. The Pentagon even released a video from a test showing that very act.
In another promising, less heralded announcement, the U.S. Marine Corps is soliciting industry for a laser defense system that can destroy incoming mortar and artillery rounds—firing from a light tactical vehicle that is rolling. It's called Ground based Directed Energy on the Move.
Why this unabashed love of lasers? The concept has inherent appeal: The ammunition never runs out and the need for costly resupply disappears. Lasers seem to be a good solution to the growing number of cruise and ballistic missiles that are being fielded by possible foes, like China, Iran, and North Korea.
Lasers would also be cheaper to operate. "We can't have a multimillion-dollar missile that shoots down a cheap enemy rocket," says Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, deputy commanding general of Marine Corps Development Command. "We're looking at a counter unmanned aerial system capability right now, but in the future we'll look at rockets, mortars and artillery."
programs wring their hands with budget worries, there is one area of research that is celebrating a banner week/month—Navy lasers. "I think directed-energy weapons will change the dynamic of warfare at sea," Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, told a crowd at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Conference and Exposition this week.
It made international news this week when the Navy's Chief of Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, announced the 2014 deployment of a warship to the Persian Gulf—one equipped with a new laser weapon that can burn unmanned aerial vehicles out of the sky. The Pentagon even released a video from a test showing that very act.
In another promising, less heralded announcement, the U.S. Marine Corps is soliciting industry for a laser defense system that can destroy incoming mortar and artillery rounds—firing from a light tactical vehicle that is rolling. It's called Ground based Directed Energy on the Move.
Why this unabashed love of lasers? The concept has inherent appeal: The ammunition never runs out and the need for costly resupply disappears. Lasers seem to be a good solution to the growing number of cruise and ballistic missiles that are being fielded by possible foes, like China, Iran, and North Korea.
Lasers would also be cheaper to operate. "We can't have a multimillion-dollar missile that shoots down a cheap enemy rocket," says Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, deputy commanding general of Marine Corps Development Command. "We're looking at a counter unmanned aerial system capability right now, but in the future we'll look at rockets, mortars and artillery."
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