A US Navy warship blasted a floating target with a laser in the Middle East

• The US Navy warship USS Portland test-fired a laser weapon against a floating target in the Middle East.
• The test follows another in May 2020, when the laser was used to disable a flying drone.
• Developing laser weapons is a key area of research for teams across the military.

A US Navy warship operating in the Gulf of Aden successfully fired on a floating target with a high-energy laser weapon system this week, the sea service revealed Wednesday.

The test, which the Navy carried out Tuesday, was a demonstration of the Solid State Laser – Technology Maturation Laser Weapons System Demonstrator (LWSD) Mark 2 MOD 0 aboard the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Portland. The service is testing whether mounted lasers can defend ships from small boats and even unmanned vessels.

Vessels in the Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters face growing threats from not just manned watercraft but also unmanned systems, such as the drone boats packed with explosives used by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, as the Associated Press has noted in its reporting.

Ships may also face aerial threats from flying drones. The high-energy laser weapon system on USS Portland was first tested in May 2020, when it was used successfully against an unmanned aerial vehicle while sailing in the Pacific.

—U.S. Pacific Fleet (@USPacificFleet) May 22, 2020

The LWSD, the laser system aboard USS Portland, is a more powerful follow-on system that builds on lessons the Navy learned from previously testing the 30-kilowatt Laser Weapon System (LaWS) aboard afloat forward staging base USS Ponce in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

“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, then the commanding officer of USS Portland, said after the 2020 test.

The new LWSD, Sanders added, “is a unique capability the Portland gets to test and operate for the Navy, while paving the way for future weapons systems.”

He added that “with this new advanced capability, we are redefining war at sea for the Navy.”

—U.S. Pacific Fleet (@USPacificFleet) May 22, 2020

The LaWS and the LWSD are not the only directed energy capabilities that the US Navy has been looking at as it modernizes its combat systems for future warfare.

The sea service has also been working on the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system, a less powerful laser weapon system that could arm the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

And this sort of work is not limited to the Navy.

Developing laser weapon systems, much like developing hypersonic missiles, has become a focus for warfighting units across the military as they shift their attention to great power competition and the possibility of high-intensity  conflict.