Article from last year, but previously unposted:
Popular MechanicsQuote:
The Navy Is Getting Really Into Lasers
Soon, nine destroyers will carry directed energy weapons.
BY KYLE MIZOKAMI
APR 9, 2021
The U.S. Navy is installing laser weapon systems on nine destroyers as part of an evaluation of the weapons’ potential.
Eight of the lasers are lower power weapons designed to dazzle or blind enemy sensors and drones.
The remaining weapon, HELIOS, has the potential to become an anti-missile defense system.
The U.S. Navy is expanding its deployment of a new laser weapon while simultaneously preparing to utilize a more powerful laser.
The Navy is arming more destroyers with the nonlethal Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) system. Meanwhile, the service will install a stronger laser, the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS), on the destroyer USS Preble (seen above) later this year.
Three Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers carry the ODIN. By the end of 2021, six destroyers will adopt the laser, with two more to follow in subsequent years, per U.S. Naval Institute News.
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