Future Weapons of Today: US Navy demonstrates laser weapon fired from ship at sea - 11th Apr 2011

Solid-state laser designed to defend ships from small boats.

The US Navy and Northrop Grumman have successfully tested a new laser weapon system designed to intercept and destroy small boats at sea. The Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD), designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman, was successfully fired from a surface ship and destroyed a small target vessel.

Similar systems have previously been tested on land, however moist sea air reduces the beam's power which until now has proved to be a major stumbling block in the eff

ectiveness of laser weapons. In spite of this, the high power solid state laser successfully disabled a boat off the coast of California by setting fire to its engines.

Steve Hixson, Vice President of Space and Directed Energy Systems at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector said: “The results show that all critical technologies for an operational laser weapon system are mature enough to begin a formal weapon system development programme.” Source