The laser in the future of defense

24/03/14

The technological process at the service of Defense will produce a new weapon system that could revolutionize combat techniques.

The United States is at an advanced stage in the development of laser weapons, a high-capacity energy beam capable of destroying flying targets, static and burning any electronic component.

This implementation will have as its first field of application the surface units, where they could be mounted, in the form of a cannon, even before the end of the 2014.

The Air Force is also developing laser technology to be used on the Next Generation Air Dominance combat fighter prototypes, a Boeing program for a future sixth generation of aircraft that will replace the F-18E / F Super Hornet and the F-22 Raptor starting from the 2025.

Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have set themselves the goal of making laser weapons combat-ready by 2030, with an initial test in the laboratory in 2014 and subsequent field simulations from 2022.

Laser technology applied to weapon systems, denounces some negative factors: first of all, the functionality is limited by atmospheric conditions, in fact the lasers tend to lose effectiveness in case of adverse weather conditions and also the weapon, to be functional, need of a considerable amount of electricity.

Currently the only unit capable of hosting this weapon system seems to be the USS Zumwalt: with a total investment, between research and development, of 29 billions of dollars for three models, this is the most advanced surface unit of the US Navy, not only for its stealth capabilities and firepower, but also for its dimensions: 185 meters long, 25 wide; a profile with low radar tracking, seems to be 50% less than other ships, but above all for the supply of a power plant capable of supporting an entire city of about eighty thousand inhabitants.

To enable the other warships to use the laser, it would be necessary to design a system of batteries that would store enough energy to allow the lasers to function.

A system of weapons able to facilitate the research processes of the new technological frontiers of the Defense industry and to open new asymmetric scenarios that would revolutionize the strategies.

This is probably the most striking example of technological deterrence.

Giovanni Caprara

(Photo: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin)

See also "Electromagnetic weapons, lasers and Zumwalt class ships"