Navy Will Deploy First Ship with Laser Weapon This Summer

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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The Navy’s USS Ponce will be the first ship fitted with a Laser Weapon System (LaWS) designed primarily to blind and disorient a drone’s sensor array. The LaWS system is still officially in the final phase of testing aboard the USS Ponce.
 
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so if a kid gets 10 years in prison for pointing one at a helicopter, do they get in any trouble for having the jolly green giant size?

I think whats more disturbing -- someone got paid a LOT of money to build something that's just a laser pointer sized up about 100X
 
And what will prevent the drone/missle having a circuit that once it's been blinded to fire at/head to the source blinding it? Don't we already have missles that head to laser painted targets?
 
but the drone would need to know the lasers frequency, so the drone can't shoot it because it's being scrambled
 
Lasers? *Picard Facepalm* That won't even penetrate our navigational shields.
 
Hmm... there are only two lasers displayed (fore and aft) aboard the video ship, now let's say there are half a dozen drones incoming fore of this defensive vessel, by the time it destroys 2 or 3 drones fore, the other 3 drones have launch an effective missile attack. :mad:

Truth be told... http://breakingdefense.com/2014/01/...cruise-missiles-to-improve-pacific-firepower/ :rolleyes:

Rail Guns are more effective than lasers... http://breakingdefense.com/2012/02/new-navy-rail-gun-fires-50-miles-with-no-propellant-latest-test/ ;)

It's bad enough when American tax payers pay billions of dollars for the future and we find out... http://www.alternet.org/fail-400-billion-military-jet-cant-fly-cloudy-weather :eek:
 
Why stick a new weapon system on a ship that's been in service for 42 years?
 
Odnocer said:
Hmm... there are only two lasers displayed (fore and aft) aboard the video ship, now let's say there are half a dozen drones incoming fore of this defensive vessel, by the time it destroys 2 or 3 drones fore, the other 3 drones have launch an effective missile attack. :mad:
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It rules out the possibility of a rogue terrorist group with one or a few drones. The hope that if they managed to get larger scale than that we'd have discovered them by then. For "equal" forces, an arms race is an arms race. I wonder what happens a bomb hit thats giant capacitor/generator next to the lazer though. I don't know the science on something like that, an EMF blast? Just a regular one? The entire deck crew getting electrocuted?
 
sfsuphysics said:
Do any other countries outside of the US use drones for military purposes?
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Yes, a lot.

bucket said:
I believe Israel is using them as well. This "laser weapon" thing looks like a solution trying to find a problem.
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Unless you at war with a country, the arms race is about being prepared.

As for why this is on a 42 year old ship, I can only guess for testing purposes.
 
What I find interesting also is that in order to test the laser shooting something down, they used what looks to be a rather expensive working stealth drone. Glad to see your U.S. military putting your heard earned tax dollars to work turning nice things into garbage.

On the other hand, our military here in Canada, just buys the garbage off of other countries and writes it off when it breaks down after a couple months. After seeing that video, it appears Canada might be able to purchase a slightly used stealth drone soon.
 
What I find interesting also is that in order to test the laser shooting something down, they used what looks to be a rather expensive working stealth drone. Glad to see your U.S. military putting your heard earned tax dollars to work turning nice things into garbage.
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They used 2 drones, 1 was high-end(blinding camera), the other looked pretty cheap(shot down).
 
INB4 someone makes a stupid anti-US or wasting money on this when we could be curing disease comment.
 
Nathan_P said:
Why stick a new weapon system on a ship that's been in service for 42 years?
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Because they don't want to take a front line vessel out of service just for testing purposes. It also means they can be justified in tearing that ship to pieces just to mount this thing. All part of the learning curve I guess. I would much rather they tear up an expendable ship to test on rather than a newer one. If something goes catastrophically wrong, they can send it to the scrap heap rather than lose a perfectly good ship.
 
Bassmankr said:
And what will prevent the drone/missle having a circuit that once it's been blinded to fire at/head to the source blinding it? Don't we already have missles that head to laser painted targets?
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Nothing, except it would be a waste of a limited resource (missiles aloft) and could be easily exploited.

The Russian T-90 has the Shtora-1 laser-detection system which (among other things) enables the crew to slew the turret immediately to any detected LRF azimuth/elev; it doesn't stop us from getting a good range on them. Besides, it would be funny to set up some LRF drones and make the tank crew dizzy as fuck :p
 
Man, I hope they got the drone they destroyed testing this on discount. Don't those things cost millions?
 
I have to wonder what the point is, I'm pretty sure the US doesn't have many enemies, let alone any that use drones. This may hurt the people in Washington who want paranoia and hurt the hooting herds of the internet even more, but for the most part we love you guys.
 
Boat needs a rename PRONTO!

ponce
BRIT.informal
noun
1.derogatory
an effeminate man.

2.
a man who lives off a prostitute's earnings.

verb
1.
live off a prostitute's earnings.
"he was arrested for poncing on the girl"
 
bucket said:
I believe Israel is using them as well. This "laser weapon" thing looks like a solution trying to find a problem.
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I think the 'problem' it's trying to solve is cost effective removal of enemy intel assets.

Sure, the ship could always use one of its missiles to shoot down the enemy drone - but missiles are EXPENSIVE per-shot (as in, 'millions of dollars'). This thing, theoretically, won't be.

Also - a missile hitting an enemy drone or aircraft WILL destroy it. The laser gives the ship another defensive option that isn't so extreme - just blinding a sensor can be equally effective at making the intruder 'go away' without actually escalating a potential conflict.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
INB4 someone makes a stupid anti-US or wasting money on this when we could be curing disease comment.
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Which is hilarious, because you know the "fiscal conservatives", regardless of party, are all for spending incredibly large amounts (undisclosed? of course…) of money on war technology like this, that taxpayers pay for. Typical hypocrisy.
 
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