Navy Lasers

An updated Congressional Research Office report issued last Friday looks at the Navy's development of shipboard lasers for surface, air and missile defense.

The updated report -- originally obtained by Secrecy News -- includes language from the Senate Appropriations Committee's fiscal year 2013 defense spending bill, which "recommends increasing by $10 million the Navy's FY2013 funding request for PE 0602114N, Power Projection Applied Research, with the additional $10 million being for 'program increase.'"

Further, CRS quotes from the committee's report accompanying the bill:

Directed Energy. -- The fiscal year 2013 budget request includes $44,560,000 [in the defense-wide research and development account] for a new Directed Energy Research program following the termination of the Airborne Laser Test Bed [ALTB]. The Committee notes that there are currently no less than five separate directed energy science and technology programs ongoing in the Department of Defense, none of which have clearly defined and funded transition plans into programs of record. In addition, the Committee understands that the Missile Defense Agency intends to award a noncompetitive, sole-source contract for integration of the yet-to-be-developed directed energy capability onto a high altitude long endurance platform that itself is currently under development. The Committee questions both the operational relevance of this scientific program, as well as the overall acquisition strategy during times of fiscal constraint. Therefore, the Committee recommends no funding for the Directed Energy program. (Page 220; material in brackets as in original; see also page 217, line 64)

Inside the Navy last month reported on the June 29 version of the CRS report:

The Navy is taking a "measured approach toward the development and implementation of lasers" as weapons aboard ships, but Congress may consider whether a program of record is needed to more clearly dictate how to proceed, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.

The report, written by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke, states Congress will need to consider whether to approve or modify the Navy's funding request to support these research programs, as well as whether to direct that a program of record or a roadmap be developed to guide the service's efforts.

The Navy has yet to conduct an analysis of alternatives to compare directed energy weapons with kinetic weapons, instead "continually analyzing its defensive capabilities for effectiveness against current and potential future threats." Without an AOA supporting a business case to develop laser weapons, some are skeptical about adopting a program of record for procuring a shipboard laser or developing a roadmap that calls for installing laser weapons on certain ships by a certain time, according to the CRS report.

There are also still many questions to be answered about the technology, including how much the power can be scaled up, how to improve beam quality, how the weapon would perform in a variety of environmental conditions and more, so the report states some fear a "rush to failure."

On the other hand, the report states, developing a roadmap or program of record to quickly get an initial version of a laser weapon on a ship would speed up the process of better understanding the weapon's utility and developing follow-on versions that are more effective and less expensive. And if directed energy weapons are the way of the future, the fleet can only get used to working with them if the lasers are on ships instead of contained in the research and development community.