"We need to be realist": laser weapon will not soon become combatable -

The US Navy is urged to adequately evaluate the development of technology. Despite the existing samples of laser weapons on ships, they are still distant to combat. The Navy and Industry should be honest about the state of laser weapons development for ships, said Fred Pyle. About it reports Breaking Defense. During the annual Symposium of the Association of the Overhaul Fleet, he said that the military and industry should be honest with laser weapons.

"Sometimes we tend to make promises and not fulfill them. We need to return to the moment we are intellectually honest when we will be honest with ourselves in terms of technological opportunities to have a concerted picture to provide these opportunities, "says Fred Pyle. He added that 15 years ago they were in the Persian Gulf. Even then, the USS PONCE was already laser installation, but the technology is still unavailable.

The publication states that the technology of directional energy has been capturing the Pentagon for decades. The Navy's research and development portfolio has numerous projects that have achieved implementation to one way or another. One of the most prominent projects is the Helios from Lockheed Martin, which is installed on the preble destination. The advantage of laser weapons should be the cost of a shot. A situation where a cheap drone is stuck for a million dollars, makes no sense.

The use of laser weapons in theory will cost an equivalent UAV. "It requires space, weight, capacity and cooling, which can be a problem for our current surface warships," said contraradmiral Pyle. The cost of accelerating laser weapons is planned to be laid in the budgets of 2026-2027. The appearance of weapons on the ship is due to the fact that ships have a lot of space, powerful energy units and water reserves overboard to solve the issue of cooling of the laser installation.