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US Navy deploys first ever laser gun designed to take down 'drones and other small craft'

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) is being deployed off the coast of Iran

James Vincent
Monday 17 November 2014 12:02 GMT
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The Laser Weapon System or LaWS
The Laser Weapon System or LaWS

The US Navy has deployed its first ever laser weapon capable of taking down drones and ‘other small vessels’ on a ship in the Persian Gulf.

The laser cannon has been equipped on the USS Ponce since August this year, officials told Bloomberg, although so far it has only destroyed “threat-representative” drones in controlled tests between 2009 and 2012.

Such a weapon has been years in development and a military dream for far longer, providing a precise and fast (it literally fires at the speed of light) way to engage cheap, anti-ship weapons for the cost of a dollar a shot.

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) can be fired at a number of intensities varying from weak beams intended to dazzle enemy combatants to full, 30-kilowatt ‘rounds’ that are capable of setting smaller targets on fire at a distance of 10 miles.

Although such laser systems and their 5p-coin sized beams are useless against aircraft or even anti-ship missiles, the Navy has proven their ability against drones and fast attack-ships.

Coincidentally, the laser-equipped USS Ponce is being deployed off the coast of Iran, a country that is known to favour 'swarm' tactics in its Navy, overwhelming enemy craft through a combination of speed, manoeuvrability and numbers.

US Admiral Jonathan Greenert has denied that the laser was specifically designed to counter Iran’s navy - “I wouldn’t target a country for a weapon, nor would I preclude putting together a weapons system for a country by itself,” he said – but that it is simply a “worthwhile experiment”.

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