Posted on 01/22/2024 7:02:19 PM PST by Red Badger
The US Navy's laser weapon program has hit various snags. Image: Popular Mechanics / Facebook Screengrab While broadly touted as the future of shipboard point and missile defense, laser weapons have been glaringly absent in the US-led coalition strikes against Iranian-supplied drones and missiles used by Houthi forces in Yemen to attack commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea.
This month, Breaking Defense reported that Rear Admiral Fred Pyle, the US Navy’s director of surface warfare requirements, has expressed frustration with the current pace of laser weapon system development.
Pyle believes that the US Navy and American defense industry need to be more intellectually honest about what is possible with laser weapons, noting a tendency by both to overpromise and underdeliver.
Breaking Defense notes that the US Navy has sought to develop a capability that would enable a sailor underway to fire a laser that knocks down an enemy drone or takes out a small boat.
The report mentions Lockheed Martin’s experimental HELIOS laser aboard the USS Preble (DDG-88) as an example of a project that aims to bring the concept closer to real-world applications.
However, the source notes that Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, the US Navy’s top surface warfare officer, has expressed frustrations with the navy’s current pace of laser weapon system development, emphasizing that laser weapons must deliver on their promise of negligible cost per shot.
Pyle said that laser weapons need physical, weight, power and cooling space that may be unavailable to current US surface combatants. The report also quotes Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro expressing concerns that laser weapon development has taken a long time to bear results.
While currently available US shipboard air defense weapons are effective, their high cost per shot and limited magazine depth raise significant cost and survivability concerns.
Lara Seligman and Matt Berg mention in a December 2023 Politico article that the US Navy has used Standard SM-2 missiles costing US$2.1 million in the Red Sea to destroy Houthi drones worth just $2,000, raising concerns about the cost-effectiveness and unsustainability of this kind of warfare.
Seligman and Berg note that while US destroyers can use their five-inch guns with airburst rounds for anti-drone defense, they can only hit targets ten nautical miles away, which may be dangerously close.
While they say that US destroyers can use Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles to hit targets closer than five nautical miles, the missiles cost around US$1.8 million per shot.
Seligman and Berg point out that US destroyers’ last line of defense, the 20-millimeter Phalanx Close-in Weapons System (CIWS), can hit targets inside one nautical mile, but the closer the drone gets to the target, the higher the chances of a successful strike.
Given that high cost-per-shot ratio, the problems would undoubtedly be magnified if the US gets into a conflict with China over Taiwan, with China having much greater production capabilities and advanced drones and missiles than the Houthis in Yemen.
US laser weapon development is thus seemingly caught in limbo due to various unresolved practical and technological issues.
A December 2023 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report notes that proponents of high-powered military lasers have made various predictions about when these weapons would be fielded that have repeatedly passed unrealized.
Laser weapon proponents cited by CRS say that the situation has changed due to advancements in solid-state laser (SSL) technology and the adoption of more realistic goals, including the use of kilowatt-power lasers for point defense instead of megawatt-power lasers for ballistic missile defense.
They say that skeptics may be prematurely abandoning the development of laser weapons due to past setbacks, despite steady and hopeful technological progress.
A separate August 2023 CRS report mentions that laser weapon development programs have been plagued by technological maturity issues related to improving beam quality and control, failure to deliver specialized facilities to maintain sensitive components and the lack of a defense industrial base to produce the weapons at economy of scale.
While the US Navy has positioned laser weapons on a few of its warships, it’s not clear if it has a strategic plan or timeline for widespread adoption of the technology.
Jared Keller notes in a January 2023 article for Task and Purpose that the US Navy has seven Optical Dazzling Interdictor Navy (ODIN) systems and one HELIOS laser.
Keller notes that while the navy is pushing to field laser weapons on surface warships as soon as possible it has at the same called for further at-sea testing of the HELIOS laser.
This month, Asia Times noted that the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers have already maxed out their upgrade potential, with internal space constraints limiting the installation of new power generation systems. That, in turn, means there is a lack of space for future sensors, communications and weapons systems.
Keller notes that Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers may not be able to accommodate laser weapons, as most of its electric power is directed to its installed AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). That means the Arleigh Burke Mod 2.0 may be the platform of choice for laser weapons integration until the new DDG(X) design begins production in 2032.
Sebastien Roblin mentions in a Popular Mechanics article this month that the US Navy plans to upgrade 20 Arleigh Burke Flight IIA destroyers, which first entered service between 1998 and 2010, for US$850 million per ship, with each refit reportedly taking about 1.5 to 2 years.
However, Roblin points out that the Arleigh Burke Mod 2.0 upgrade program may suffer the same fate as the troubled attempts to upgrade aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers, where cost overruns and delays have hobbled full upgrades.
Roblin notes that as the US Navy has upgraded its Arleigh Burkes over the last four decades, the design is running out of free space for future upgrades including laser weapons.
Any problem with less competent, affirmative action scientists and technicians, selected from our affirmative action, dumbed down educational system?
As long as no “DEI” initiatives are impacted they should get some weapons.
Sounds like the Ardleigh Burkes need to go nuclear...Unlimited power capacity...
*Arleigh Burkes
Astronomers have been using lasers to get very clear pictures. They shoot out a beam and the resulting distortion is filmed and relayed to a computer which uses computer controlled pistons to distort a mirrored surface to counteract the atmospheric distortions. Obviously such technology could be used to make a beam tightly focused on a target.
“The system is the answer.” Has proven to not be the answer.
A system is an answer - sometimes proves to be an answer.
The combined systems . . . with the creativity and mad inventions of bureaucrats and computer programming . . . are proving to be maintenance problems.
Imagine a world where the Navy never purged its patriots, went scamdemic bat sh!t crazy or brought all the perverts out of the head and put them on the bridge, maybe the Navy would be prepared to fight a war.
The ‘problem’ is they have practically no more deck space for any more weapons...............
Hmmmm! I do know!
Why not just build a whole of suicide drone they can send out to intercept the Houthis drones and then blow up like fragmentation grenades. I’m guessing that would take out some of them at a low cost.
YOU COULD KNOCK THEM OUT WITH HIGH PRESSURE WATER HOSES...................
Can a laser destroy an object with a highly reflective surface?
Short range, low speed, close range interception. That looks more like a point defense weapon.
Ideally you want a weapon that can do area defense, to cover civilian vessels and other naval vessels. That requires a fast interceptor.
Now that’s VERY short range. Better not miss, you won’t get another chance.
Look where they came from for your answer
.
Yes................
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