The US “National Defense” magazine published an article by Dan Parsons, briefly introducing the US military (mainly the Navy) is studying the use of various low-cost laser pointer to counter enemy missiles and other weapons. In order to maintain its technological superiority, the U.S. military has invested more money in this area than any other country’s military. However, the U.S.’s expensive high-tech defense systems are increasingly being subjected to relatively cheap but effective weapons (such as cruise missiles and Unmanned aircraft) proliferation challenges.
U.S. military experts believe that if there is no more effective and cost-effective measures to deal with enemy attack ammunition, the United States may lose its operational advantage with opponents who use inexpensive ammunition in future conflicts.
The many new weapons that appeared in the American science fiction movie “Star Wars” are very popular among Americans. Mark Gunzinger, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and Budget Evaluation (CSBA), a new US think tank that focuses on military research, said that when facing enemies with ballistic missiles and integrated air defense systems, use concentrated directed energy beams against them. The weapon attack may be the most economical way,
“Looking forward to a combat environment in which conflicts may become more intense in the future, our enemies will have sophisticated defense systems that force us to use precision guided munitions.” Said on the arms forum. “We should face reality and use directed energy weapons. This will help us reverse the trend we are seeing now-the US Navy must spend more and more money to defend at the expense of its offensive power. fleet.”
Although the U.S. Navy hopes to obtain an inexpensive and efficient ship-based missile defense system, its R&D expenditure on solid-state green laser pointer has been relatively stable since the 2011 financial year, reaching approximately $400 million at the peak. The overall budget of the laser project has now dropped to 350 million US dollars.
The use of lasers and other directed energy weapons can reverse this trend, which is beneficial to the US military because the cost of launching such weapons is very low and the number of launches is almost unlimited, said Ronald O’Rourke, an expert on naval affairs in the US Congress. .