Submarine Laser and San Nicholas Island

While we hear about LASER weapons deployment in Air Force and Navy aircraft and surface ships, we are not surprised we do not hear about the same in submarines. To effectively accomplish stealth missions, submarines must remain largely unpublicized and strange.

From May 28, 2010 Navy’s Drone Death Ray Takes Out Targets at Sea

For years, the U.S. Navy has been pursuing a workable ray gun that could provide a leap ahead in ship self-defenses. Now, with a series of tests of a system called the Laser Weapon System, or LaWS), it may be one step closer to that goal. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the service’s technology development arm, announced today that LaWS had “successfully tracked, engaged, and destroyed” a drone in flight, during an over-the-water engagement at San Nicholas Island, Calif. Hmmm!

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From August 10, 2010 While the latest USN laser turkey shoot of aerial drones proved surface to air feasibility, lasers are more limited than say cruise missiles for targets over the horizon (not due to effective laser ranges). Remember, lasers follow a straight line that does not bend with the earth's curvature. Consequently, surface-to-surface laser weapons would be limited to well below a 40 mile range. There are better alternatives. For submarine to air/space, however, a submarine laser might be a particularly effective as well as deniable weapon.

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From March 16, 2009 The company will design and test high-electron laser, free-electron laser, and other high-energy systems that could be used to destroy weapons of mass destruction and vehicles carrying them.

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Observation... no platforms are mentioned. Can we infer naval vessels, submarine lasers, perhaps? As Steve Jobs said, "We are just as proud of things we leave out."

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From February 20, 2008 SSG/(L secret)N Submarine US or Them ...Finally, consider the incredible advantages of submarines here (stealth) and here (nuclear power plant).

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From November 19, 2007 With much less weight consideration and a huge increase in power availability, the guts of the high-power laser fits nicely into an SSN. ...Preposterous, you say?

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From August 20, 2007 Did HMS Gotland stick strictly to anti-submarine exercises with navy ships, or could it have tested something else, too, like a submarine laser? The fire control (system) power requirement for HMS Gotland (without abundant nuclear power) was 75 kW in 1997; related power requirements for the 688I class subs was over 7x more at 550 kW. Minimum power for weapons laser had generally been considered to be 100kw.

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From February 22, 2006 The goal of the J-HPSSL program is to demonstrate integration of scaleable subsystem technologies at the laboratory level into a 100 kW-Class solid-state laser system for use on a variety of military platforms.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.