A U.S. Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.
Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said.
The Navy did not give a specific location of the laser weapons system demonstrator test, saying only that it occurred in the Pacific on May 16. "By conducting advanced at sea tests against UAVs and small crafts, we will gain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats," Capt. Karrey Sanders, commanding officer of Portland, said in the statement.The Navy says lasers, which it calls directed energy weapons , can be effective defenses against drones or armed small boats.
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