Navy still bullish on lasers but widely-deployed directed-energy ship defense remains years away
Quest gains urgency as enemy drones and missiles get better, cheaper, and more widely used.
Patrick Tucker | August 8, 2024
Navy Drones Missiles
“I'm just frustrated that it's taking so long, but that's not due to lack of effort in trying,” said the commander of U.S. Navy Pacific surface warships, describing the service’s latest projects that seek practical anti-air defenses of pure energy.
One problem—in fact, “the No. 1 barrier,” according to Vice Adm. Brendan McLane of Surface Forces Pacific—is that there’s no commercial market for lasers powerful enough to down an incoming missile from miles away.
But the military’s own need for defenses that are less expensive and more flexible than interceptor missiles grows more urgent by the day. Offensive missiles and armed drones are getting cheaper, deadlier, and more widely used; witness the anti-shipping campaign in the Red Sea and the April 16 aerial attack on Israel.
To be sure, the Navy has deployed experimental and prototype lasers and other directed-energy weapons for more than a decade. Eight warships currently carry the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy, or ODIN, a small laser to blind the sensors of incoming drones and missiles. But it doesn’t do well against weapons that move really fast or lack optical sensors.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2024/08/navy-still-bullish-lasers-real-directed-energy-ship-defense-remains-years-away/398695/?oref=d1-homepage-top-story
