Join Amazon Prime for exclusive deals, fast shipping, and endless entertainment! Sign up now!
The US Navy has reached a new milestone in its development of laser weapons with a successful test in the Gulf of Aden which destroyed a floating target. The amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland was chosen in 2018 to host a trial period for the Laser Weapons System Demonstrator, a high-energy laser weapon which is designed to do precisely what the USS Portland tested for in this specific troubled corner of the world.
Navy successfully tests laser weapon system
The Gulf of Aden is situated between Yemen and Somaliland. It connects to the red sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and opens into the Arabian Sea in the east.
The Navy was particularly concerned with testing the laser weapons system here because this is one of the most dangerous places in the world for their ships to be operating right now.
The war in Yemen, a proxy war which has seen heavy involvement from both Saudi Arabia and Iran, has made the Gulf of Aden a hazardous place for US vessels, which risk being targeted by Islamist terror attacks in this critical region.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen have, with alleged Iranian help, constructed remotely piloted small boats which can be packed with explosives and used for unmanned kamikaze attacks against much larger ships like the USS Portland.
Unfortunately, the Navy has invested so heavily in extremely sophisticated and expensive missile systems that are wholly unsuited for destroying such small and fast moving targets.
Even if these new ships can hit one of the unmanned boats, each shot will be a massive waste of resources and taxpayer dollars on a target which conventional gunnery could have done a better job with.
Promising developments
While the laser systems are still expensive and technologically complex, the Navy seems to be confirming that they can do their job successfully and inexpensively once installed.
The Portland already tested the weapon last year against a flying drone, confirming that it has the ability to knock out air and sea targets.
The current weapon is five times more powerful than a previous laser weapon tested on the USS Ponce in 2014; the Navy is making rapid progress on these weapons and future iterations may be even more powerful.
Unlike pricey missiles, the laser weapon systems benefit from having theoretically unlimited ammunition and there is no need for an equipped vessel to be concerned about wasting shots.
Range, however, is likely to be an issue. Unlike other weapons, the effect of a laser will be weakened severely by environmental conditions, smoke, and any obstacle which gets in its way.
The USS Portland is also unlikely to be the kind of ship which will fully integrate the weapon, which the Navy installed on it more for convenient testing. The ship is primarily designed to move large numbers of marines for amphibious assaults, not seek out and engage threats.
