At present, the Navy is developing ship-borne laser weapons based on fiber laser pointer, slab solid-state lasers, and free electron lasers through three projects: "Laser Weapon System," "Marine Laser Demonstration System," and "Free Electron Laser".
The laser weapon system uses modular fiber lasers as the light source, with a total power of 33 kilowatts. In August 2014, the US Navy installed the laser weapon on the amphibious dock transport ship "Ponce" deployed in the Persian Gulf for a one-year test. A series of live ammunition tests were completed, which destroyed multiple targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles and speedboats, and verified the combat performance of laser weapons in harsh ocean environments such as strong winds, high temperatures, and humidity.
The offshore laser demonstration system uses seven 15-kilowatt neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum stone solid slab lasers to synthesize a 105-kilowatt laser beam. The MLD system was installed on the deck of a decommissioned destroyer. In April 2011, MLD launched a laser beam from a maritime mobile platform for the first time to overcome obstacles such as atmospheric transmission, ocean waves, movement between weapon platforms and target platforms, and finally destroyed 1.6 kilometers away. Dinghy.
The free electron laser is a laser weapon project unique to the Navy. The laser is driven by electricity, and has the two advantages of high output power and adjustable wavelength (to adapt to the best atmospheric transmission window in different environments), making it very suitable for use in special maritime combat environments. This is the freedom of the Navy to choose. The reason for the electronic laser.
However, the development of free electron lasers is not smooth. Due to its extremely complex technology, so far, the output power of its laboratory prototype has only reached 14 kilowatts, which is far lower than the expected 100 kilowatts, not to mention the megawatt level that it ultimately hopes to achieve. And its laboratory prototype is extremely bulky. In order to reduce the risk of developing megawatt-class free-electron green laser pointer, in March 2011, the Navy decided to suspend the plan and focus its energy on solid-state lasers in order to introduce a directed energy weapon into the fleet as quickly as possible.