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The US Navy wants to use 'super lasers' in future warfare

The US Navy wants to use 'super lasers' in future warfare
The US Navy wants to use 'super lasers' in future warfare The US Navy wants to use 'super lasers' in future warfare

The US Navy has plans to test high-powered lasers that can be used as weapons with a year.

Though technology and prototypes of some laser weapons already exist, the country’s navy has revealed it hopes to create a massive 150-kilowatt weapon that can be tested on a ship within 12 months.

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Speaking at the Surface Naval Association national symposium earlier this month, Rear Admiral Ronald Boxall, director of the Surface Warfare Division, said the navy was “doing a lot more with lasers”.

He also said the navy plans to test a high-powered laser this year. “Then a year later, we’ll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both,” he said.

(Screenshot/YouTube)

The US already has a Laser Weapon System (LaWS) mounted on to one ship – the USS Ponce – which was added in 2014 and has been tested while the ship was stationed in the Arabian Gulf.

Now the navy is keen to step up its development of such weapons, which experts and manufacturers say have accuracy capabilities far beyond most traditional weapons.

The weapons are also seen as being far more efficient in cost terms – experts say lasers can incinerate any incoming enemy missiles using a single beam as opposed to launching a missile worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.