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The U.S. Navy on Wednesday released dramatic photos from a demonstration of a high-energy laser weapon system that "successfully engaged" a floating target during a test in the Gulf of Aden. The laser was test-fired from the USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, which previously used the laser in May 2020 to destroy a drone, which was considered a first-of-its-kind test of such a weapon, USNI News reported. The Navy took to Twitter to post futuristic infrared images that showed the laser training on its target. Another image showed sailors in a control room presumably wearing protective glasses....

The US Navy successfully tested a laser weapon and destroyed a floating target in the Gulf of Aden​ — indicating the system could be deployed to target drone boats used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to a new report. The USS Portland fired the Laser Weapon System Demonstrator on Tuesday in the waterway that separates the Arabian peninsula from ​Africa, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.​ The Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in the Middle East, said the laser “successfully engaged” the target.​​ In May 2020, the USS Portland used a laser to down a drone. ​​

After decades of toiling and dead-ends, the dream of operational laser weaponry is about to become a reality. So, what changed that made what had been bulky systems go from clumsy pipe dreams to hardened, miniaturized, and reliable weapons that will be able to be deployed even in the harshest of conditions? We recently had an in-depth interview with Dr. Rob Afzal, Lockheed Martin Senior Fellow, Laser and Sensor Systems, where I pressed him on everything related to laser weaponry and the emerging military applications that go along with it. In the course of answering my maelstrom of queries, Dr....

The laser, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), may seem as though it were pulled straight from a James Bond movie, but it's entirely functional and can shoot with stunning accuracy, the U.S. Navy told CNN. The LaWS is currently deployed aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship, in the Persian Gulf. "Operationally, it works just like a laser pointer," Lt. Cale Hughes, a LaWS officer, told CNN. "There's a chamber inside with special materials that release photons." ... The $40 million system requires a team of three to operate it and a small generator to power its...

A laser weapons system that can shoot down two drones at a distance of over a mile has been demonstrated by Rheinmetall Defense. The German defense firm used the high-energy laser equipment to shoot fast-moving drones at a distance. The system, which uses two laser weapons, was also used to cut through a steel girder a kilometer away. …

Or even hit a mortar round mid-air before it's had a chance to explode. The machine fires a 30 kW primary laser and a 20 kW secondary laser that can slice through a steel girder at about 1,000 yards.

A futuristic laser mounted on a speeding cruiser successfully blasted a bobbing, weaving boat from the waters of the Pacific Ocean -- the first test at sea of such a gun and a fresh milestone in the Navy's quest to reoutfit the fleet with a host of laser weapons, the Navy announced Friday. "We were able to have a destructive effect on a high-speed cruising target," chief of Naval research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told FoxNews.com. The test occurred Wednesday near San Nicholas Island, off the coast of Central California in the Pacific Ocean test range, from a laser gun...

Preliminary indications are that the so-called Airborne Laser Test Bed tracked the target's exhaust plume but did not hand off to a second, "active tracking" system as a prelude to firing the high-powered chemical laser, said Richard Lehner, an MDA spokesman. "The transition didn't happen," he said. "Therefore, the high-energy lasing did not occur." Boeing produces the airframe and is the project's prime contractor, while Northrop Grumman supplies the high-energy laser and Lockheed Martin Corp has been developing the beam- and fire-control systems. Defense Secretary Robert Gates scaled back the program into a research experiment last year. About $4 billion...

Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), with support from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, for the second time successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed a threat representative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while in flight, May 24, at San Nicholas Island, Calif. This marks the first Detect-Thru-Engage laser shoot-down of a threat representative target in an over-the-water, combat representative scenario. A total of two UAV targets were engaged and destroyed in a maritime environment during the testing, the second series of successes for the U.S. Navy's Laser Weapon System (LaWS) Program. Members of NAVSEA's Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) Program...

More has emerged on the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Electric Laser on Large Aircraft (ELLA) program and, as anticipated, it's an effort to fit DARPA's Hellads laser into the weapons bay of a B-1B bomber to flight-test a high-power electric laser against tactical targets. General Atomics and Textron Systems are developing rival 150kW lasers under Hellads, with the goal of demonstrating a laser weapon system weighing less than 5kg/kW - substantially smaller and lighter than any previous airborne laser. Lockheed Martin is designing the laser weapon system module (LWSM), including power, cooling and beam director. Answers to bidder questions...

The United States has taken a big leap in creating a real laser weapon. Until now electric lasers have not been able to generate the strength need for use on the battle field. There were chemical-based lasers that could do the job, but the chemicals were dangerous for the soldiers operating them. A new breakthrough has enabled Electric lasers have hit battlefield strength for the first time paving the way for energy weapons to go to war. While these weapons will not be strong enough to be an offensive weapon the will work on a defensive basis, shooting mortars and...

In late September 2007, Boeing successfully tested a 1kw solid state laser weapon mounted on a converted Avenger anti aircraft vehicle in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The laser successfully destroyed several unexploded mortar shells from a safe distance and was also able to destroy two unmanned aerial vehicles (which were on the ground). Boeing hopes to introduce the first operational laser-based weapon systems in the not too distant future, helping soldiers to fight road side bombs and to defend themselves from possible aerial threats. In 1960, after an all-out race between scientists, Theodore Maiman developed and tested the first laser device...

Airborne Laser given a reprieve — and challenging development schedule The threat of cancellation no longer looms over the Pentagon's Airborne Laser effort, but senior program officials say they are taking nothing for granted as they prepare for a missile-intercept demonstration in 2008. Several clear test milestones have been laid out for the Airborne Laser in 2006 so that senior Missile Defense Agency officials will be able to measure its progress, according to Air Force Col. John Daniels, the effort's program director. The Airborne Laser, or ABL, is a Boeing 747 aircraft being equipped with a high-powered chemical laser to...

The U.S. military has been developing a gunship that could literally obliterate enemy ground targets with a laser beam. The laser could have tremendous repercussions on the battlefield, particularly in urban warfare in such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq. "It's the kind of tool that could bring about victory within minutes," an official said.

Tracking the MTHEL Laser By Sam Jaffe May 9, 2005 After more than ten years and several billion dollars of development, one of the most promising experimental weapons in the history of the Pentagon seemed to have fired its last shot. "The Army has no funding for MTHEL," says Lt.Col. Jeff Souder, the project manager of directed energy applications program at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) was a program to develop a defensive laser weapon powered by the combustion of highly volatile chemicals that shoots down artillery projectiles. They system works by...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- A mobile laser weapon developed by Israel and the United States has scored its first success. In its first test, the Mobile Tactical Higher Energy Laser laser weapon destroyed an artillery shell traveling at supersonic speed. The trial on Tuesday took place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and launched the demonstration phase of the mobile system. Officials said Israel and the United States are expecting to complete a mobile version of the laser by 2006. A stationary laser system was considered too bulky for the Israeli military. "The MTHEL tracked, locked and fired...