Barely had I blogged on the US Navy's idea using multi-target laser designators to rain Hellfires down on swarming small boats than the service awards Northrop Grumman a contract to demonstrate its other solution to the threat: a high-energy laser.
Photo: US Army
Northrop has been awarded a $98 million contract for the Office Of Naval Research's Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD) program, which aims for the at-sea demonstration of a laser weapon mature enough to go straight into development. The demonstration phase is expected to last just 12-18 months.
One of two teams on the Joint High Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) program, Northrop in March beat the goal of demonstrating 100kW laser power in the laboratory. The MLD prototype is to be in the "tens of kilowatts" class, and could be built up from Northrop's Firestrike 15kW laser modules produced using JHPSSL slab laser technology.
The DDG-1000 (Zumwalt) class has a TON of power headroom, specifically designed-in for weapons of this class, as well as for the rail gun planned for the first of the series.
Folks may love those DDG-51s, but the design is at end of life, and the cost difference is not as huge as it has been alleged. Time to build the last one and move on to a new design - maybe even the DDG-10000 with rockets vice rail gun. Watch this space.
"maybe even the DDG-1000 with rockets vice rail gun."
Plus as CT said we need to start moving on to railguns and as the article points out DEW's. Power will obviously be an issue so we're shortchanging our future by relying on the DDG-51.
As for Northrop, way to go guys! Hopefully you are working hard also on free electron lasers, which if I'm not mistaken won't be held hostage to weather and other environmental factors as a conventional laser.