Navy Test Fires Solid-State Laser

Posted by on April 9th, 2011

Researchers mounted the Maritime Laser Demonstrator, a solid-state laser, aboard the USS Paul Foster, a decommissioned destroyer. Off the central California coast near San Nicholas Island on Wednesday, the laser fired a 15-kilowatt beam at an inflatable motorboat a mile away as both ships moved through the sea. As the above video shows, there was a flash on the boat’s outboard engines, igniting both of them in seconds, and leaving the ship dead in the choppy waters.

Note that this was only 15 kilowatts on their way to 100+ kilowatts needed for burning missiles from the sky.

[Wired]

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