Video - Maritime Laser Test - April 8, 2011
The Office of Naval Research and their industry partner Northrop Grumman successfully disable a small target vessel using a solid-state, high-energy laser (HEL), mounted onto the deck of the Navy's self-defense test ship, the former USS Paul Foster (DD 964).
The US Navy has fired a laser gun from one of its ships for the first time.
Researchers used the high-energy laser (HEL) to disable a boat by setting fire to its engines off the coast of California. Similar systems had previously been tested on land, however moist sea air presented an extra challenge as it reduces a beam's power. The navy said that ship-borne lasers could eventually be used to protect vessels from small attack boats. The US military has been experimenting with laser weapons since the 1970s. Early systems used large, chemical-based lasers which tended to produce dangerous waste gases. More recently, scientists have developed solid state lasers that combine large numbers of compact beam generators, similar to LEDs.
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Video - Feb. 2010
The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) research and development platform successfully fired the onboard High Energy Laser (HEL) to engage an instrumented target missile, called a Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument (MARTI).