The U.S. Navy fielded its prototype Laser Weapon System (LaWS) in an operational environment for the first time in August. The 30-kilowatt beam weapon is installed aboard the USS Ponce, which is what is known as an interim afloat forward staging base, and is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf with the U.S. 5th Fleet, having exceeded performance expectations in testing.
The LaWS is a U.S. Navy-led project based around existing hardware from previous initiatives and six commercial 5.4-kilowatt solid-state fiber lasers. The system utilizes a beam combiner developed by the Naval Research Laboratory that converges the six infrared lasers on a focal point. Initially installed for testing on the flight deck of the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey, the LaWS was fast-tracked for yearlong sea trials aboard the USS Ponce. The laser was successfully integrated into the Ponce's existing systems and linked to the tracking radar of a Phalanx close-in weapon system (a Gatling gun that shoots missiles out of the sky) for target acquisition. A human operator controls the system throughout its engagement cycle, unlike the Phalanx, which can be set to automatically engage and destroy incoming threats.
Although the high-energy laser successfully engaged surface targets and unmanned aerial vehicles in defensive scenarios, directed energy weapons are still in their relatively early days. The laser system is a valuable addition to the U.S. Navy's already formidable arsenal rather than an eventual replacement for kinetic weapons such as cannons and missiles. The technology itself is still maturing and is unlikely to be widely fielded for some time.
Lasers offer a potentially limitless close-in engagement capability, but they come with costs, both fiscal and developmental. Projectile weapons and their countermeasures have proved effective in two world wars and countless smaller conflicts, but lasers remain untested as offensive or defensive weapons in combat. In time, lasers will become increasingly capable and cost effective, but then again, so will the countermeasures against them. A weapon system does not develop in isolation, and every venom has an antidote. As effective as the LaWS trials have been, it will take decades more, perhaps even centuries, before directed energy weapons achieve their battle-winning potential.
