Video: a laser gun on board a warship hits a drone

    It should be noted right away that the demo video under the cut does not look like a catchy picture from Star Wars with spectacular laser flashes and characteristic pulsating sounds, but the reality that the military use of laser weapons at a high technological level is very close is almost beyond doubt.

    At the beginning of next year, the US Navy plans to conduct field tests of a laser gun on the American landing ship Ponce, which last year served in the Persian Gulf as a Pentagon floating base for military operations. As evidence that taxpayers' money doesn’t go to useless toys, the Navy gives a short video showing the tracking and destruction of a flying drone with a laser gun from the deck of a Dewey destroyer - while the MK 15 Phalanx radar system is used as a tracking system (for nicknamed "R2-D2").

    The process is shown on both sides - as the operator saw on the ship, and what was shot with the drone's built-in cameras. Destruction of the target does not look spectacular, like fantastic action movies - a laser flash, an explosion and a fall in the sea - on the contrary, the laser, rather, “burns” the drone for some time. It is also curious that one of the advantages of using laser weapons in the Navy is its cheapness. It is indicated that launching a rocket worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars is a more wasteful occupation than a laser shot for the same purpose.



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