The US navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser
attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or
destroy surveillance drones.
A prototype shipboard laser will be deployed on a converted
amphibious transport and docking ship in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian
fast-attack boats have harassed US warships and where the government in Tehran
is building remotely piloted aircraft carrying surveillance pods and, some day
potentially, rockets.
The laser will not be operational until next year, but the
announcement last night by Admiral Jonathan W Greenert, the chief of naval
operations, seemed meant as a warning to Iran not to step up activity in the
gulf in the next few months if tensions increase because of sanctions and the
impasse in negotiations over the Iranian nuclear programme.
The navy released video and still images of the laser weapon
burning through a drone during a test-firing.
The laser is designed to carry out a graduated scale of
missions, from burning through a fast-attack boat or a drone to producing a
nonlethal burst to "dazzle" an adversary's sensors and render them useless,
without causing any other physical damage.
The Pentagon has a long history of grossly inflating claims
for its experimental weapons, but a nonpartisan study for Congress said the
weapon offered historic opportunities for the navy.
"Equipping navy surface ships with lasers could lead to
changes in naval tactics, ship design and procurement plans for ship-based
weapons, bringing about a technological shift for the Navy - a 'game changer' -
comparable to the advent of shipboard missiles in the 1950s," said the
assessment, by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of
Congress.The study found that the new high-energy laser "could provide
navy surface ships with a more cost-effective means of countering certain
surface, air and ballistic missile targets".
Among the limitations, according to the research service, is
that lasers are not effective in bad weather because the beam can be disturbed
or scattered by water vapour, as well as by smoke, sand and dust. It is also a
"line of sight" weapon, meaning that the target has to be visible, so
it cannot handle threats over the horizon. And enemies can take countermeasures
like coating vessels and drones with reflective surfaces.
Navy officials acknowledge that the first prototype weapon to
be deployed is not powerful enough to take on jet fighters or missiles on their
approach. That capability is a goal of researchers. Among the advantages cited
in the study for Congress was the low cost - less than $1 per sustained pulse -
of using a high-energy laser against certain targets. By comparison, current
short-range air-defense interceptor missiles cost up to $1.4 million each.The
laser weapon also has a limitless supply of ammunition - pulses of high energy
- so long as the ship can generate electricity. The beam can reach its target
at the speed of light and can track fast-moving targets.
Rear Admiral Matthew L Klunder, the chief of naval research,
said the high-energy laser system was developed as part of the navy's search
for "new, innovative, disruptive technologies." In essence, the navy
is trying to harness technological advances in battling adversaries that are
thinking of inventive ways to counter US power.Iran has two navies: a
traditional force of large older ships and a rival one run by the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps that consists of fast-attack speedboats with
high-powered machine guns and crews that employ guerrilla tactics, including
swarming perilously close to US warships.
A significant confrontation between the United States and
the Revolutionary Guards Corps occurred in 2008, when five of Iran's armed
speedboats made aggressive maneuvers as they approached three US navy warships
in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
Pentagon officials said the commander of a Navy destroyer
was on the verge of issuing an order to fire when the speedboats pulled away.
No shots were fired.
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