US Navy unveil operational laser weapon

The US navy has demonstrated a new weaponised ship-mounted laser weapon system in the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Iran.  The laser is capable of destroying targets on speeding boats or even aircraft with pin-point accuracy, it told reporters on Wednesday.

Using 30 kilowatts of power, the weapon is 30million times more powerful than a hand-held laser pointer and requires its own on-board powerplant. It can either be run at lower power, to “dazzle”  to disrupt or damage sensors and instruments, or at full power to destroy targets.

The navy was eager to point out that the weapon is fully operational. “We’re not testing any more – it’s working,” Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, the chief of naval research, said in a press conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

The device, the only of its kind so far, is mounted on the USS Ponce, an Austin-class amphibious transport vessel.  According to a release from the navy, sailors working with the laser – which is officially designated Laser Weapon System, or LaWS – say that it has performed “flawlessly, including in adverse weather conditions” and that it was more reliable than expected.

The laser has not yet been used in anger, but Klunder said that it is fully battle-ready if it is needed. “If we have to defend that ship today, we will [use the laser] to destroy a threat that comes,” he said. The Captain of the Ponce is authorised to use the weapon, if the situation requires.

The main advantage of the laser system over traditional weapons systems is its cost. The price of firing a missile, Klunder said, can be as much as $2m each, while the cost of the laser system is just the price of the electricity it takes to power the device – 59 cents per shot.

Under Protocol IV of the Geneva Convention (added in 1995), laser weapons are currently banned for use against humans. This is perhaps why, in the demonstration, wooden human figures are propped up on the target boat, to show that the system is accurate enough to destroy mounted weaponry while avoiding human targets.

“We will not point lasers at people. We are going to honour the conventions,” Klunder told the press.