The US Navy purchased a huge laser cannon of about 16 billion yen to combat China with a railgun mounted on a warship

The US Navy paid about 150 million dollars (about 16 billion yen)Lockheed MartinI bought two laser cannons. One for testing on land, the other for early 2020Array-Bark class missile destroyerIt is planned to be installed in. Originally it seems to have never contracted so hastily so far,Possibility China is carrying a rail gun on warships to promote developmentConsidering that, in order to quickly expand armaments, it is difficult to put into practical useRail gunIt seems that the policy was changed to the deployment of the laser cannon instead of it.

The US Navy Bought Its First Big Laser Cannon - Motherboard
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The laser cannon, which is said to have contracted, consumes 150 kw of power per shot. This output is a boat andUnmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)It has enough power to destroy it. It is also planned to raise the output to 300 kw. If this is realized, the range will be widened, as well as the power will be increased, so the possibility of shooting down before the missile moving at high speed reaches the destination It will also be considered to be. And, compared to currently deployed missile launchers and ship guns, it seems that the time and cost of launching a laser cannon is reduced.

ByNational Museum of U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy, after a bidding of laser weapons that can be mounted on a destroyer, has not been more than a year on January 26Directional energy weaponAnnounced the purchase of. It was a prototype of a rail gun on the deck of a Chinese warship in the Yangtze River port a few days ago that made the contract of the US Navy earlierPhotoHas been one of the reasons, and deploying a laser cannon with high cost performance against the Chinese fleet, which is rapidly strengthening, the US Navy has equal or higher fighting power It is said that there is an aim to appeal to being there.

ByOffice of Naval Research

Although the rail gun and laser cannon are different in many respects such as the mechanism, they are said to be weapons with many commonalities. It depends on electric power, not both gunpowder, and it has features that work faster than conventional weapons. And because it has the power to allow the destruction of boats, missiles and aircraft, strongDefensive weaponI also have the potential to become.

Laser weapons have further advantages, and although missiles need to fire expensive cannonballs even more than 1 million dollars (about 110 million yen) per shot, even rail guns, bullets are not needed for laser cannons, 1 The cost per departure is also only a few dollars (several hundred yen).

ByOffice of Naval Research

"If you fight against a country like China that has the ability to build many unmanned air weapons, anti-ship missiles, buildings, etc., you paid high cost for attacks, the navy can not go hand in hand to defense There is sex "Congressional Research BureauRonald O'Rourke pointed out in the November report and in 2016 Mr. William Moran, the then US Navy Operations Dean, said, "Low cost directional energy weapons are one of the important parts of the future If we have to rely on a projectile, we will be defeating the defense capability. "

ByKeith Roper

The US Navy is a shipping landing ship in 2014PonceTo "Laser weapons system (LaWS)"And carried out operational tests. In the test, a 30 kW laser cannon drone and a boat carried out short distance fire training.MITAccording to the researcher, "The test at that time is not as impressive as the impression", but the test at this time will serve to show the direction of the "directional energy weapons" that the Navy wants "The know-how gained in this test will greatly increase the development and reliability of laser-based weapons systems," explained on the website of the US Naval Research Laboratory.

The US Navy predicts Lockheed Martin's laser weapons will be a very useful weapon, and at the time of the contract, it already said that contract options equivalent to 800 million dollars (about 86 billion yen) are included. It is said that this amount is equivalent to the amount to be installed in more than 10% of the fleet destroyers and to purchase even 10 additional units.