By 2021, US Navy destroyers will be armed with new ship-fired lasers able to sense and incinerate enemy drones, low-flying aircraft and small boat attacks — all while firing at the speed of light. Lockheed Martin’s new laser weapon, called High-Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-Dazzler with Surveillance, or HELIOS, is engineered to surveil, track and destroy. The goal is to detect incoming attacks early, giving commanders more time to make combat decisions regarding a possible response. [Unspoken is the obvious application for use against crowds of dissidents and politically incorrect leaders in their homes.] –GEG
If swarms of enemy small attack boats armed with
guns and explosives approached a Navy ship, alongside missile-armed
drones and helicopters closing into strike range, ship commanders would
instantly begin weighing defensive options – to include interceptor
missiles, electronic warfare, deck-mounted guns or area weapons such as
Close-in-Weapons System.
Now, attacks such as
these will also be countered with laser weapons being added to the
equation, bringing new dimensions to maritime warfare on the open sea.
By 2021, U.S. Navy
destroyers will be armed with new ship-fired lasers able to sense and
incinerate enemy drones, low-flying aircraft and small boat attacks —
all while firing at the speed of light.
Lasers have existed for
many years, but the Navy is now adjusting emerging Tactics, Techniques
and Procedures to how new high-powered, ship-fired lasers will change
ship defenses….and attack options.
Lockheed Martin and the Navy
have been working on ground attack tests against mock enemy targets to
prepare high-energy lasers for war. The weapon, called High-Energy Laser
and Integrated Optical-Dazzler with Surveillance – or HELIOS – is
engineered to surveil, track and destroy targets from an integrated ship
system consisting of advanced radar, fire control technology and
targeting sensors.
Working with the Navy, Lockheed has recently
completed its Systems Design Review for HELIOS, a process which examines
weapon requirements and prepares subsystems and designs. The intent is
to engineer an integrated tactical laser system able to receive “real
time operating feedback well in advance, before the system hits the
ship,” said Brendan Scanlon, HELIOS Program Director, Lockheed.
‘FIRST CUT-OF-STEEL’ BEGINS NEW ERA IN NUCLEAR WEAPONS, SUBMARINES
The
farther away an incoming attack can be detected, the more time
commanders have to make time-sensitive combat decisions regarding a
possible response. Therefore, having one system that synthesizes sensing
and shooting changes the equation for maritime warfare.
Connecting
HELIOS’ fire control with ship-based Aegis Radar, used for missile
defense, enables a combined system to gather surveillance data from the
radar while preparing to destroy the targets.
“Sensors provide
cues to laser weapons, with the Aegis operator in the loop. You can use
optical sensors to decide what else you are going to do, because the
weapon tracks between Aegis and the laser subsystem,” Scanlon added.
This
technical range enables some new mission possibilities for the laser
weapon, such as an ability to use the laser weapon to “obscure
adversaries optical sensors.” This can bring a number of advantages,
such as throwing incoming drone fire, helicopter attacks or even
anti-ship missiles off course.
Developers are now working on a
handful of technical challenges known to make it difficult for mobile
lasers to operate on certain platforms, without finding a way to
accommodate large amounts of power. The Navy’s Program Manager for the
Zumwalt-class destroyers, Capt. Kevin Smith, addressed this recently at
Sea Air Space, explaining that a “power surge” is needed to operate
lasers on ship.
“For directed energy weapons you need a surge.
There is technology we are looking at right now to assess how the ship
can have the energy storage that would facilitate that surge capacity,”
Smith said.
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