Laser Cannon On a US Navy Ship
The US Navy isn’t stopping in their efforts to bring the future of weaponry into the present. This includes lasers that have been used in science fiction since forever. But real-world application proved to be much harder.
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US Navy representatives recently announced that by 2021 they want to equip a destroyer with a laser weapon. The weapon will most likely be HELIOS – High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance. This is a defensive laser capable of setting small ships on fire and shooting down drones that made the mistake of attacking a US Navy ship.
The US Navy has given the 150 million contract to the Lockheed Martin company and is expecting to get two HELIOS systems for that money. One of them will be delivered to the White Sand Missile Range in New Mexico to be tested. But the second will be installed onto an Arleigh Burke destroyer. HELIOS is a 60-kilowatt laser system.
Nowadays, the US Navy warships have a good amount of weapons systems available to them. But they all have one key disadvantage. Limited ammo. A laser system is theoretically capable of firing off an unlimited amount of shots at least while it has power. Compare it with for example the Phalanx CIWS with the Vulcan cannon that can fire for only 30 seconds before it runs out of ammo or the RIM-116 RAM system with its only 21 missiles.
While HELIOS is still not the laser weapon we know and want from sci-fi it is still a start. And once scientists and engineers make the technology more effective we will see the future of wars come true.
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I'm reading this and wondering how it will feel subjectively from the POV of those manning the ship! Will it feel like being in a microwave? Will it be instant or slow, like a snail or crab being boiled? Whichever way I'm imagining it, it still comes out horrific!
Can it be made solar-based?!
I do not know how it will be felt by the people being attacked by this, I don't think that was even part of the testing process.
And making it solar based, probably not, at least not at this moment because the power requirements are just too large for any solar panels that would fit on a ship.
The OP was faster than me to answer the second part. Energy requirements are the key :)
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