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A US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that
can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement
Friday.

Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship
USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy
class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement
said.
The images show the laser emanating from the deck of the warship. Short video
clips show what appears to be the drone burning.

The Navy did not give a specific location of the laser weapons system
demonstrator (LWSD) test, saying only that it occurred in the Pacific on May 16.

The power of the weapon was not disclosed, but a 2018 report from the
International Institute for Strategic Studies said it was expected to be a
150-kilowatt laser.
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"By conducting advanced at sea tests against UAVs and small crafts, we will gain
valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System
Demonstrator against potential threats," Capt. Karrey Sanders, commanding
officer of Portland, said in the statement.
"With this new advanced capability, we are redefining war at sea for the Navy."
The Navy says lasers, which it calls directed energy weapons (DEW), can be
effective defenses against drones or armed small boats.
"The Navy's development of DEWs like the LWSD provide immediate warfighter
benefits and provide the commander increased decision space and response
options," the statement said.
In 2017, witnessed a live-fire exercise of a 30-kilowatt laser weapon aboard the
amphibious transport ship USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf.
At the time, Lt. Cale Hughes, a laser weapons system officer, described how they
work.

"It is throwing massive amounts of photons at an incoming object," Hughes said.
"We don't worry about wind, we don't worry about range, we don't worry about
anything else. We're able to engage the targets at the speed of light."
The Ponce was retired from service later that year.