{"id":381,"date":"2011-04-11T20:02:30","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T02:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/?p=381"},"modified":"2011-04-11T20:02:30","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T02:02:30","slug":"laser-gun-fired-from-us-navy-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/11\/laser-gun-fired-from-us-navy-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Laser gun fired from US navy ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/52106000\/jpg\/_52106927_shiplaser.jpg\" alt=\"Laser\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A high-energy laser (HEL) fired from a US warship off the California coast has ignited a nearby boat. Video courtesy of the US Office of Naval Research.<\/p>\n<p>The US Navy has fired a laser gun from one of its ships for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers used the high-energy laser (HEL) to disable a boat by setting fire to its engines off the coast of California.<\/p>\n<p>Similar systems had previously been tested on land, however moist sea air presented an extra challenge as it reduces a beam&#8217;s power.<\/p>\n<p>The navy said that ship-borne lasers could eventually be used to protect vessels from small attack boats.<\/p>\n<p>The US military has been experimenting with laser weapons since the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>Early systems used large, chemical-based lasers which tended to produce dangerous waste gases.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, scientists have developed solid state lasers that combine large numbers of compact beam generators, similar to LEDs.<\/p>\n<p>HELs fire<\/p>\n<p>Until now, much of the development of HELs has focused on shooting down missiles or hitting land-based targets.<\/p>\n<p>The latest round of tests showed its wider possibilities, according to Peter Morrison from the Office of Naval Research.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This test provides an important data point as we move toward putting directed energy on warships.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is still much work to do to make sure it&#8217;s done safely and efficiently,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>While a weaponised system would likely be restricted to military vessels, merchant shipping has also expressed an interest in laser technogy,<\/p>\n<p>A gun which uses visible laser light to temporarily blind pirates was announced by BAE Systems in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>The technology is still being tested, ahead of a commercial launch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high-energy laser (HEL) fired from a US warship off the California coast has ignited a nearby boat. Video courtesy of the US Office of Naval Research. The US Navy has fired a laser gun from one of its ships for the first time. Researchers used the high-energy laser (HEL) to disable a boat by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}