July 18, 2017, global media hit the public with headlines: "The United States tested laser weapons in the Persian Gulf." The American television channel CNN released a footage depicting a test of laser weapons, produced by the U.S. Navy. Two targets were successfully hit by laser gun shots, showing the world what the US laser weapon is capable of. The gun under the designation XN-1 LaWS on the USS landing ship USS Ponce is now the only laser gun in service with the U.S. Navy, but the Pentagon is already aimed at developing and constructing new guns and arming them with military ships and aircraft. What laser weapons are in the arsenal of the US Army? What are its technical data? What are the plans of the American military-industrial complex in this important issue? You will learn about this from this article.
Miracle weapon
The great minds of mankind at the beginning of the 20th century predicted the appearance of radiation weapons. The idea of a weapon capable of breaking through any armor and guaranteed to hit a target is reflected in the works of science fiction writers. These are Oscar Wilde’s Martian tripods in War of the Worlds, and A. Tolstoy’s “high-power heat ray” in the engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid, and their numerous followers in literature and cinema. The most famous work, which implements the idea of laser weapons, can rightfully be called "Star Wars" by George Lucas.
In the 1950s of the last century, laser weapons came into the view of the military. At the same time, the development of working versions of lasers was carried out in the USA and the USSR. The United States in the development of laser weapons focused primarily on missile defense.
Ronald Reagan Star Wars
The US’s first step in laser weapons was the Strategic Defense Initiative program, better known as the Star Wars project. It was planned to launch into orbit satellites equipped with lasers designed to destroy Soviet ballistic missiles at the highest point of their trajectory. A large-scale program was launched to develop and manufacture means for the early detection of take-off missiles, and according to some unconfirmed reports, in an atmosphere of special secrecy, the first satellites with laser weapons on board were launched into space.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project, in fact, has become the forerunner of the American missile defense system, around which disputes and verbal battles do not cease today. But SDI was not destined to be fully realized. The project lost its relevance and was closed in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moreover, the already existing developments were used in other similar projects, including the aforementioned missile defense, and some individual developments were adapted to civilian needs, such as the GPS satellite system.
Boeing YAL-1. A pipe dream of a laser bomber
The first attempt to revive the concept of the use of radiation weapons in combat conditions was the design of an aircraft that would be able to shoot down nuclear missiles on takeoff. In 2002, an experimental Boeing YAL-1 aircraft with a chemical laser was built, successfully passing several tests, but the program was closed in 2011 due to budget cuts. The problem of the project, which negated all its advantages, was that the YAL-1 could only shoot at 200 kilometers, which in the conditions of full-scale hostilities would lead to the fact that the plane would simply be shot down by enemy air defense forces.
US reborn laser weapons
The new US defense doctrine, which called for the creation of a national missile defense system, again aroused the military’s interest in radiation weapons.
In 2004, the U.S. Army tested laser weapons in combat. A ZEUS combat laser mounted on an HMMWV SUV in Afghanistan has successfully dealt with the destruction of unexploded ordnance and mines. Also, under unconfirmed reports, the US tested laser weapons in the Persian Gulf in 2003 during Operation Shock and Awe (military invasion of Iraq).
In 2008, the Northrop Grumman Corporation, an American company, jointly with the Israeli defense department, developed a Skyguard missile defense laser. Northrop Grumman is also developing beam weapons for the U.S. Navy. In 2011, active tests were conducted, but so far nothing is known about the existing products. It is assumed that the new laser will be 5 times more powerful than what the U.S. experienced in the Persian Gulf in July 2017.
Later, Boeing began the development of the HEL MD laser development program, which successfully passed combat tests in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, Boeing introduced a laser with a power of up to 2 kW, which successfully shot down a drone during exercises.
Beam weapons are also being developed at Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. According to the US Department of Defense, tests of laser weapons will be held annually.
XN-1 LaWS System
The XN-1 LaWS laser gun was developed by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in 2014 and was immediately installed on board the obsolete USS Ponce landing craft, selected to test the new gun system. The power of the gun is 30 kW, the approximate cost is 30 million US dollars, the speed of the "projectile" is more than 1 billion km / h with the cost of one shot at 1 dollar. The installation is controlled by 3 people.
Benefits
The advantages of US laser weapons directly come from the specifics of their use. They are listed below:
- He does not need ammunition, since it works on electricity.
- The laser is much more accurate than firearms, since external factors are practically not affected by the projectile.
- Another important advantage arises from accuracy - collateral damage is absolutely excluded. The beam strikes the target without harming the surrounding objects, which allows it to be used in densely populated areas where the use of conventional artillery and bombing is fraught with great casualties among civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
- The laser is silent, and its shot cannot be tracked, which allows it to be used in special operations, where invisibility and noiselessness are the main success factors.
disadvantages
Of the obvious advantages of a laser weapon, its disadvantages also arise, namely:
- Too much power consumption. Large systems will need large generators, which will significantly limit the mobility of the artillery systems on which they will be installed.
- High accuracy only when firing direct fire, which dramatically reduces the effectiveness of land use.
- The laser beam can be reflected using inexpensive materials, the production of which is established in many countries. So, the representative of the Minister of War of the PRC said in 2014 that Chinese tanks are completely protected from American lasers thanks to a special protective layer.
