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Official: US Navy laser weapon performing beyond expectations

A laser weapon deployed aboard the USS Ponce in the Gulf has performed beyond expectations in four months of operational testing, the chief of Navy research said on Wednesday, lifting hopes for a new US defense against cheap anti-ship arms.

 

Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, head of the Office of Naval Research, said the $40 million laser weapon was fully integrated into systems aboard the USS Ponce at the end of the summer for a year of testing.

 

"This is the first time in recorded history that a directed energy weapons system has ever deployed on anything," he said.

 

New video of the 30-kilowatt laser showed it dazzling a small aerial drone in two seconds, frying its electronics and sending it plummeting into the sea before it had time to catch fire.

 

Another showed it targeting a hard-to-see rocket-propelled grenade aboard a small, distant attack boat, causing the device to detonate and send a spray of shrapnel across the water.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.11.14, 07:42