This month the u.s
navy continued its tests of a laser
weapon from the deck of the uss portland, destroying a target floating on the
surface of the gulf of aden. These laser demonstrations are part of a
broader modernization effort with the us
navy trying out new and varied tools in
the waters around the middle east.
The test took place on december 14th. It
was preceded by tests in the pacific in
may 2020. In which the portland used the
same laser weapon to destroy a target
drone. Both demonstrations are part of the navy
figuring out how, exactly its larger
ships can protect themselves from
smaller, cheaper threats.
To better understand modern directed
energy weapons it's important to take a
step back from the science fiction idea
of a laser weapon. high-powered beams of light are
expensive to develop and deploy but they
offer a kind of cost savings once they
are up and running. Provided a ship can
generate the electrical power needed. A laser is shot for shot or threat for
threat. A cheaper mechanism than anti-air
missiles are potentially even 0.50
caliber bullets for destroying incoming
attacks.
If the threats the navy wants to defeat
are cheap such as QASC F-1 drones then
what the navy needs to deploy is a
countermeasure that's also cheap to use. Drones especially loitering munitions
that fly like drones but attack like
missiles are a durable and increasing
threat in modern warfare.
Some of the groups fighting in yemen
have used expendable drones as missiles
in far-reaching attacks and plenty of
modern anti-air defenses, like anti-plane
missiles are at best cost ineffective
against drones and sometimes even unable
to detect and intercept drone attacks. A laser does not solve the detection
part of the threat, but it does give
commanders a cheaper alternative than
shooting a missile at a drone.
If the laser can burn through an
attacking drone quickly enough. it can
then be turned to face another target
and by expending only generated electric
power, it can protect a ship from a host
of attacks.
"You can do everything in the world to
understand how you think laser weapons
are going to be used, but you put this
controller in the hands of a sailor
who's going to play with it and do the
thing they do with the operational
interface and then they're going to
decide to use it in ways we can't
imagine," Frank Peterkin the navy's senior
technologist for directed energy told USNI News in 2019 after the selection of
the USS Portland for the weapon was
announced.
The portland or LPD 27 is the 11th san
antonio-class amphibious transport dock
ship and is named in honor of city of
portland oregon. The USS Portland is an amphibious
transport dock. capable of landing 700
marines by dedicated landing craft, as
well as helicopters and V-22 Ospreys. It's the kind of ship that will need to
get close to danger with a small set of
shipboard weapons to ensure its survival
to and beyond that point.
According to lcd after an author at Popsci.com putting a laser weapon on the
portland gives it extra options against
any threats it may encounter, like drones
or attempts to attack it with small
boats. The most infamous example of this threat
occurred in october 2000 while docked in
yemen's ayden harbor the destroyer USS Cole was attacked by suicide bombers in
a small boat. the attack killed both
bombers and 17 sailors and injured 37
other people on board the ship.
The u.s navy deployed the first
high-energy laser weapon, known as laws
on the uss ponce in 2014, with a reported
30 kilowatt output. Most military lasers tend to be in the
30 to the 100 kilowatt range which is
mainly useful for shooting down small
drones. So the new weapon in portland is
a significant increase.
When the u.s navy tested a laser weapon
in 2014 on the uss ponds it used it to
destroy the engine of a small motorboat. The kind of use that could protect a
ship from attackers using inexpensive
means to try and stop a ship before it
reaches shore. The ponce's laser was 30 kilowatt, as
designed the laser on board the Portland
is at 150 kilowatt letting it burn
through targets faster and thus disable
more threats to the ship.
According to Popsci.com demonstration of
the laser aboard the portland follows a
pattern of demonstrations of navy robots
in the gulf of aden in the persian gulf. Whatever danger the navy anticipates in
the future, it is now regularly exploring
how new technology in the seas adjacent
to the arabian peninsula can help it out.
