Guys that text was embedded in the article ... which alas is no longer available without an account.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/laser-weapons-move-from-fiction-to-fact/story-fnb64oi6-1226620053084
ACCORDING to legend, Archimedes used giant mirrors to burn Roman ships with concentrated sunbeams. HG Wells wrote of Martians incinerating their enemies with a Heat-Ray.
Now, the dreams of inventors and science-fiction aficionados through the ages have been realised with the announcement by the US navy that it is to deploy a warship-mounted laser that can destroy planes, drones, small boats or spy cameras.
The Laser Weapons System is to be fitted to the USS Ponce, a converted amphibious transport and docking ship, based in Bahrain, which will patrol the Persian Gulf from next summer, giving it the capability to neutralise attack boats operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
In keeping with these straitened times, the navy trumpeted the futuristic weapon principally in cost-saving terms. Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, said at the service's annual Sea-Air-Space Expo that a laser shot costs less than a dollar, compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a single missile.
...Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Recommended Coverage..US Navy Laser Weapon System
...End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
"This capability provides a tremendously affordable answer to the costly problem of defending against asymmetric threats [such as terrorism], and that kind of innovative approach is crucial in a fiscally constrained environment," he said.
Peter Morrison, head of the Office of Naval Research's Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation Program, was a little more poetic: "The future is here. The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionising modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords."
The new weapon is able to fire at a range of intensities from a beam capable of burning through the hull of a ship or an aircraft to, at the lower end, a burst that might temporarily disable enemy sensors.
The Congressional Research Service concluded that the new weapon was a "game changer".
There are, however, a number of limitations to it. Lasers are not effective in poor weather or when the air is full of smoke, dust or sand, which can deflect the beam.
According to the US navy, the laser scored 12 straight hits in 12 trials against flying targets. Most of the firings were from land test sites, three were from the deck of the destroyer USS Dewey.
The laser is not visible to the naked eye because it is in the infrared spectrum. It is a low-power system that works simply by heating the target until it melts or burns.
It will not work against high-speed targets such as missiles or fighter jets because the beam has to be locked onto the target for several seconds. It can be relatively easily defended against by using special coatings or reflective surfaces.
This type of laser is different from an aircraft-mounted laser tested in recent years that is designed to use high energy to destroy ground targets in urban areas to minimise collateral damage. Its range remains classified but lasers cannot bend so a warship needs to have a direct line of sight to the target. The curvature of the Earth would rule out longer ranges.
The Persian Gulf is the primary route for Iran's oil exports, and Tehran, keen to build up its military as tensions rise over its nuclear program, is developing drones.
Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the Iranian navy commander, has said that Iran will unveil new developments in its naval forces this week.
In the 1930s, Britain's Air Ministry offered 1,000 pounds to anyone who could perfect a death ray that could kill a sheep at 100 yards. It is not known whether those behind the US navy's new weapon have yet claimed the reward.
Alt article
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23379-dronewrecking-laser-gun-to-sail-on-us-warship.html
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram