As the world’s major alliances compete to deploy new weapons systems, this link reveals a new and possibly imminent deployment of new laser weapons aboard US Navy ships. The article states that new laser weaponry may be deployed on US Navy ships within two years, and that they are designed to work in tandem with “traditional machine guns for ship defense.”
While the lasers are reportedly designed to sink small ships and aerial drones with smaller ship-borne machine guns, that phrase also allows for the possibility that the new lasers may also combine with the Phalanx point-defense system (which are high-tech, radar-guided “machine guns”) to help shoot down incoming hostile cruise missiles fired at US aircraft carriers or other large surface ships. A laser-weapon designed to sink small ships would be ideally suited for setting afire and sinking the many Iranian small boats which Iran plans to use against US Navy ships in a “swarm attack” in any future war involving the Persian Gulf.
This is a welcome development for US national security, and the source of this information was a US Navy admiral. The article notes that these new lasers were already successfully able to shoot down robotic aircraft in 2010, so it seems apparent that they are well on the way to becoming operational. The fact that they have been tested against robotic aircraft confirms (to me) that they are intended to engage far more sophisticated enemy weapons systems than just “small boats” or slow aerial drones.
Obviously, no US Navy admiral would reveal every threat that the laser-weapons defense program is designed to counter, nor would he reveal the full capabilities of the laser weapons themselves. A videoclip is included in the article demonstrating how a laser weapon could be used to set a small boat afire, but I think this videoclip demonstrates the lower range of the laser weapon’s intended uses. We also have no idea of the effective range of these laser weapons as I’m sure that is classified information.
Whenever a major war erupts between US/western alliance and the Chinese/Russian/Iranian alliance in the future, I’m sure that each side will have some surprises in store for the other. Laser weaponry can be expected to be deployed and used. As long-time readers of this blog know, Ezekiel 38-39 prophesies that such a war is certain to occur in the future. I thought readers might appreciate knowing about new weapons systems as they are revealed via the media.
My thanks to a reader for sending me this link.
