Navy’s New Cost-Saving Weapon: A Laser That Can Shoot Drones From the Sky

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) currently installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built from commercial fiber solid-state lasers strung together and controlled and directed onto targets by an MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System. Part of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Solid-State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) effort, LaWS is an affordable solid-state laser weapon prototype for Navy ships to help Sailors d