US NAVY hits drone with Helios laser in a successful test

The US Navy successfully tested its high-energy laser with integrated optical dazzler and surveillance or Helios, system on one of its warships in the financial year 2024, According to to a recently released report.

Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer Preble fired his Helios system to zap an air drone during a 2024 weapon testing exercise, according to an office for the director, Operational Test and Evaluation Report published in January.

The report that did not give a date or time of the laser implementation included a black and white photo showing a series of white lights radiating from the vessel into the sky.

The Center for Counter -Measures – A program developed in 1972 to measure the Defense Ministry’s ability to combat new technological threats – performed 32 tests in the 2024 financial year, which included “development and evaluation of corrected energy weapons”, according to the report.

This test performed on the prelate was run “to verify and validate the functionality, performance and capacity” in the Helios system, the report said.

It is unclear where the test took place. Preble left Naval Base San Diego, California, in September 2024 and Arrived In Yokosuka, Japan, October 12, 2024.

Lockheed Martin delivered the 60-Plus-Kilowatt laser to the Navy in August 2022, when it became the first tactical laser system installed in existing ships.

Unmanned warning, especially in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, where marine ships have captured drones and missiles launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the fall of 2023, has emphasized the need to speed up technology’s deployment for Navy, the Military Times earlier reported.

By 2024, Deputy Readm noted. Brendan McLane, who acknowledged that the Navy did not have a laser, it could field, and noted that a directed energy weapon would help us warships against Houthi runs.

The integration of lasers on marine blue vessels would also allow the crews to preserve ammunition, military time earlier reported.

The Department of Defense has spent $ 1 billion annually developing lasers with high energy and high-power microwaves, but without the concrete results that the Navy leadership craves, according to the same report.

The service has been exposed to challenges in developing and implementing instructed energy weapons for countless reasons, including difficulties in determining laser use in the field and relating to the system does not meet operational needs. The overall technological development, finding a power source aboard ships and potential obstacles presented by the environment, such as fog and wind, has also proven to be challenging.

Currently, the Navy Eight Optical Dazzling Interdictor or Odin, Laser Dazzlers, which disturbs enemy sensors, integrated into Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyers, According to For Congressional Research Service’s December 2024 report on Navy lasers. There is also a 150-kilowatt laser Weapon System demonstrator, or LWSD, installed on a San Antonio-Class amphibious transport ship.