Analysis of High Energy Laser Weapon Employment from a Navy Ship.

摘要

This paper analyzes the employability of laser weapons on a Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class ship to counter small and fast boat threats. A general model of laser weapons is established to identify the attributes that characterize the laser weapon system. Quantitative values of each attribute are identified and compared for four laser weapon systems that are currently under development by the Navy to determine their potential for employment on the LCS. Plausible operational scenarios of a suicide attack by multiple (up to three) small and fast motor boats equipped with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) against LCS-class ships are described. These scenarios provide input parameters for computing the laser parameters that would be needed to neutralize such threats. Three types of laser technologies, the Solid-State Slab Laser (SSSL), Free Electron Laser (FEL), and Fiber Laser (FL), are assessed to determine whether they meet the laser weapon requirements that would be needed to counter the small boat threats described in the scenarios. The requirements involve power, beam size, ship infrastructure capacities, stabilization, response to multiple targets, and cost.