ARLINGTON, Va. -- Expect to see the Navy using lasers on both of its ships within the next couple of years. Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of the Office of Naval Research, tells Wired that they have pushed up the timetable from four years to two to install laser weapons on board ships.
"We're well past physics," Klunder told the magazine. "We're just going through the integration efforts. Hopefully, that tells you we're well mature, and we're ready to put these on naval ships."
Klunder added that tests have been "very successful," telling Wired that lasers were recently able to shoot down drones.
On top of lasers, the Office of Naval Research is also working on drone subs that they hope can go underwater for 60 days at a time. A prototype of the drone sub is expected to be ready by 2016.
"The propulsion systems that I think you're going to see within a year are going to [give] a (unmanned underwater vehicle) with over 30 days of endurance," Klunder explained to the magazine. That's ahead of schedule of what we told the secretary of the Navy a year ago." |