Navy ready with a Laser Weapon System

For the past 4 years the United States Navy has been working on a secret project to construct a laser ray gun, that would be helpful in providing better defenses to its naval ships. Now, with a series of tests of a system called the Laser Weapon System, it may be one step closer to that goal.


According to latest reports from the Naval Sea Systems Command, the LaWS (Laser Weapon System) has "successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed" a drone in flight, during an over-the-water engagement at San Nicholas Island, California.

The LaWS is essentially a laser upgrade to the MK 15 Close In Weapon System (CIWS), a.k.a. the Phalanx gun, a radar-guided autocannon that is already installed on Navy surface combatants.

According to NAVSEA, the tested system is controlled by the same system that controls the Phalanx. The system represents the next step in the evolution of the Phalanx system. The Phalanx is a last line of defense against sea-skimming anti-ship missiles and hostile aircraft, but the laser wouldn't replace the gun completely.

LaWS might also have other applications: land-based Phalanx guns have been used to shoot down incoming rockets and mortars in Iraq and Afghanistan.