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(CNN) - A US Navy warship. USA It successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy airplanes in mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.
Images and videos provided by the Navy show that the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executed "the first system-level deployment of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to deactivate a drone, the report details. release.
The images show the laser emanating from the warship deck. A short video clip reveals what appears to be a burning drone.
The Navy did not give a specific location for the LWSD test, and only noted that it occurred in the Pacific on May 16.
The power of the weapon was not disclosed, but a 2018 report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said it was expected to be a 150-kilowatt laser.
"By conducting advanced tests at sea against UAVs and small vessels, we will obtain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats," Capt. Karrey Sanders, commander of Portland, said in the statement.
"With this new advanced capability, we are redefining war at sea for the Navy."
The Navy says lasers, which it calls Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), can be effective defenses against drones or small armed vessels.
"The development of Navy DEWs such as the LWSD provides immediate benefits for war fighters and provides the commander with greater decision space and response options," the statement said.
In 2017, CNN witnessed a live-fire exercise of a 30-kilowatt laser weapon aboard the amphibious transport ship USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf.
At the time, Lt. Cale Hughes, an officer with the laser weapons system, described how they work.
"It throws massive amounts of photons at an incoming object," Hughes said. “We don't care about the wind, we don't care about the scope, we don't care about anything else. We are able to attack targets at the speed of light. "
Ponce was retired from service later that year.
Lasers U.S. Navy
