Here’s Our First Look At A HELIOS Laser-Armed Navy Destroyer
USS Preble is the first Navy ship with HELIOS, which can damage and destroy targets like small boats and drones, and blind optics.
BY
JOSEPH TREVITHICK
AUG 23, 2022 8:42 PM
The U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble is now armed with a High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance system, or HELIOS. Preble is the first of the service's ships to be equipped with HELIOS, which is a 60-kilowatt class directed energy laser weapon, and is also the first to have any such weapon integrated with the Aegis combat system. The destroyer joins a small, but growing number of Navy vessels equipped with directed energy weapons of various types.
Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor behind HELIOS, issued a press release last week announcing the installation of the system onboard Preble, but pictures on the ship's official Facebook page show it had been installed weeks before then. In March, the company said it had completed land-based testing of the system at a range at Wallops Island, Virginia, and that it was being shipped to Preble's homeport of San Diego for integration onto the destroyer.
USS Preble pierside in San Diego in July 2022. HELIOS can be seen on a platform immediately in front of the main superstructure.
“Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy share a common vision and enthusiasm for developing and providing disruptive laser weapon systems," Rick Cordaro, vice president of Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions, said in a statement in the August 18 press release. "HELIOS enhances the overall combat system effectiveness of the ship to deter future threats and provide additional protection for Sailors, and we understand we must provide scalable solutions customized to the Navy’s priorities."
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/heres-our-first-look-at-a-helios-laser-armed-navy-destroyer
