While a lot of the scientific focus of 2020 has rightfully been turned towards the defeat of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, that doesn’t mean that nothing else is being researched or tested.
One of those other focuses was revealed to be continued development and the successful testing of laser weapons by the US Navy, as reported by USNI News .
The Navy has been working on high energy laser weapons for years now, but this test is a new milestone.
From 2014-2017, the USS Ponce was the first home to a 30-kilowatt Laser Weapon System (LaWS) as part of testing how such a system could perform in an operational setting rather than a lab.
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In 2018, it was announced that the USS Portland had been selected to host the next generation of the LaWS.
This next stage is meant to test the improvements to the laser itself, not how it might integrate into shipboard systems.
Basically, the Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) was installed on the Portland because it was a ship deemed have the space, weight, and power required to test what will become a 150-kilowatt laser.
On May 16, 2020, the first-of-its-kind weapon was tested at sea for the first time.
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was launched and the laser was aimed.
In the footage released of the test, you can see the UAV burst into flames. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie.
The test occurred off the coast of Pearl Harbor and is considered a complete success.
This is just the most powerful in a series of prototype directed energy weapons (DEW) the Navy is developing. The LWSD is too powerful for most Navy ships to carry, but smaller versions are in the works that could disable enemy aircraft and small water craft.
The May 16 test is only the first of many as Navy scientists work to perfect the technology.
