With its new high-energy laser weapon, the U.S. Navy has succeeded in combining buccaneers and Buck Rogers. Called the Maritime Demonstrator laser, ray gun quickly with disabilities a small boat in a recent test. Such a laser could someday protect military vessels of the same kind of small boat that nearly sank the destroyer USS Cole, increasing the small machine guns and aboard U.S. warships.
The test conducted on 6 April by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), is the first time a high-energy laser to function properly as a weapon at sea. Offensive lasers often have problems in dynamic environments like the ocean, and so far have proved largely useless in battle. Because the risky story, the lessons learned during the development of the laser can be more valuable than the actual laser
"We're learning a lot from this program - how to integrate and work with directed energy weapons," said Peter Morrison, program officer for ONR. "All results are extremely valuable, regardless of the outcome."
As you can see in the video below, the laser acts slowly burning a hole through the boat engine. Since it lacks a laser blast "Star Wars" style, or even machine guns and force used to defend the ship, ONR laser designed to complement and diversify, rather than replace systems and protection of U.S. warships, Morrison said.
ONR developed the laser in combination with the exception of Northrop Grumman. The program had a maximum value of $ 98 million and took about two and half years to complete.