Laser For Aerial Defense
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עברית (Hebrew)
Protection from aerial threats is critical for ships out at sea, being exposed to aerial assaults from any direction. Laser technology and its use as a weapon is no longer restricted to scienc fiction, and examples for various uses already exist in the world’s armies. The main use of laser by the military might be mostly for passive applications rather than for attack, such as laser markers on optic sights for better-aimed shooting, laser rangefinders that can measure the distance from the soldier to the enemy, as well as many others, but there are a number of uses for laser energy as an agressive weapon. Of those, the United States’ Nautilus system for aerial defense, which has not yet been put in operational use.
The U.S. navy has recently been exploring different options to channel laser energy for creating an aerial defense system for the fleet’s airplanes and helicopters carriers. Rear Admiral Michael Manazir, the officer in charge of aerial warfare, has said that “the current technology in directed energy, with the power and cooling required, means that the installations are big and they are heavy – but the technology is rapidly advancing. I’ve seen some concepts that start to get the sizes down.”
Manazir goes on to say that “There are finite numbers of missiles and finite installations on the carrier. If you can put a directed energy piece on there with its lower cost per round, you can see where you can start to reduce the cost overall and measurably increase the protection of the ship,”
The person in charge of integrating laser systems in the U.S. navy’s ships, Read Admiral Thomas Moore, says the the laser system are to be used in the Ford-class carriers. “Lasers need to get up to about 300 kilowatts to start making them effective.” As the Ford-class carriers can produce more energy than any other ship in the fleet, they were the selected platform to carry the laser system.
