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The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman Corporation demonstrated high-energy, solid-state laser defenses at sea by com- pleting a "counter-material" test of the Maritime Laser Demonstrator (MLD) against small boats. Northrop Grumman designed and built the MLD for the Of- fice of Naval Research, leveraging a laser built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Com- mand/Army Forces Strategic Command and the High Energy Laser Joint Tech- nology Office. Open ocean tests were conducted between October 2010 and April 2011 at the Pacific Ocean Test Range near San Nicolas Island off the Central California coast. For these tests, the laser system was installed on the Navy's Self Defense Test Ship, the USS Paul Foster. While underway, the MLD system initially tracked and lased land targets. The solid-state, directed energy system then tracked and damaged mov- ing, remotely piloted, unmanned small boats traveling at representative speeds and ranges, company executives said. "The results show that all critical tech- nologies for an operational laser weapon system are mature enough to begin a for- mal weapon system development pro- gram," said Steve Hixson, vice president, space and directed energy systems at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Solid-state laser weapons are ready to transition to the fleet." Hixson said the MLD team accomplished several notable firsts, including: • First Navy laser system to go to sea, installed on a decommissioned Spru- ance-class destroyer, for the program's culminating demonstration; • First Navy laser system to be inte- grated with a ship's radar and naviga- tion system; and • First electric laser weapon to be fired at sea from a moving platform. Other tests of solid-state lasers for the Navy have been conducted from land- based positions. "During the latest demonstrations, MLD spent a total of three days at sea, during which we operated the laser at high power more than 35 times," said Dan Wildt, vice president, directed en- ergy systems. "The laser withstood the stresses of wave heights up to seven-and- a-half feet." According to Jay Marmo, the com- pany's MLD program manager, the open ocean tests collectively showed that a laser weapon system can effectively op- erate in a challenging maritime environ- ment and overcome such obstacles as atmospheric conditions, waves and the motions of both the host and target ves- sels, while also meeting capability re- quirements for self-defense. "In the future, lasers will operate synergistically with kinetic energy weapons to optimize ship defenses," Marmo said. "Lasers can address a number of emerging threats, enabling the fleet to maintain freedom of operation, yet with a very low cost of op- eration. " At-Sea Demonstration of Maritime Laser May 2011 www.marinelink.com 15 (Photo: Nor thr op Grumman)
