US Navy plans railguns, lasers on ships by 2020
Laser to be upgraded from 30Kw to 100Kw.
US Navy plans to upgrade powerful railguns, laser weapons on ships by 2020
The United States Navy is taking the lead to develop a higher-powered laser weapon and electromagnetic railgun for self-defense system enhancement on their ships. The US Navy aims to upgrade the technologies into more powerful missile-defense system on ships with the capability to trigger an explosive farther out from its target by 2020.
The Navy has already demonstrated the 30-kilowatt Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, carried by an old transport ship called USS Ponce in September 2014 that melted a hole in a drone and detonated explosives, according to press release by the Office of the Naval Research. The marines also developed a prototype railgun technology that can launch a projectile farther and faster than guns can fire, and could destroy cities, which the future upgrade is proposed to be used also by the Army for inland defense.
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Source: ibtimes.com.au
