Thursday, December 11, 2014

US Navy shot down a drone with a laser cannon – TF1

No, this is not science fiction. For four months a canon laser 30 kilowatts has been installed on the aircraft carrier USS Ponce US Navy (the navy USA ) and tested in the Persian Gulf. Tests that have proven very successful.

In a video posted on the YouTube account of the Naval Research Office, we can see how this laser cannon destroyed, among others, a drone flying or an object lodged on a floating boat. The beam being emitted in the infrared, no ray is not visible to the naked eye.

Everything is controlled by a joystick

Everything is orchestrated from inside the boat. An operator controls the gun through a small lever similar to the one that connects to a video game, it aims, and shoots. The success rate of the weapon is 59%, though “we never missed our target,” says Matthew Klunder, head of the Office of Naval Research.

According to the US Navy, the laser power can be adjusted between a simple disruption and destruction of the target. But the biggest advantage of laser cannon facing a missile is its cost. When a shot can cost nearly a million dollars, a laser beam requires for its less than a dollar.

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