As Rob commented to me, the headline on this story reads like the cover of a 1950s science fiction mag! Still, a directed-energy weapon mounted on a ship that “successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed” a flying drone is, er, pretty damn scary cool. From CNN/Wired:
It’s certainly not the first time lasers have shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle — last year, the Air Force zapped several drones with beam weapons in a series of tests at China Lake, California, — but this test brings an additional bit of realism — and an extra technical challenge.
Laser beams can lose strength as they move through the moist, salty sea atmosphere above the sea, so the Navy needs directed-energy weapons that can work effectively on ships.
The LaWS is essentially a laser upgrade to the MK 15 Close In Weapon System (CIWS), a.k.a. the Phalanx gun, a radar-guided autocannon that is already installed on Navy surface combatants.
“Navy’s drone death ray takes out targets”