Shipboard Lasers

A recent Congressional Research Service report finds that the Navy "currently does not have a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates."

The report -- originally obtained by Secrecy News -- notes that the service and the Defense Department "have conducted development work on three principal types of lasers for potential use on Navy surface ships -- fiber solid state lasers (SSLs), slab SSLs, and free electron lasers (FELs)."

The possibility of equipping warships with lasers in the future "raises a number of potential issues for Congress," the report states, including:

* whether the Navy should act now to adopt a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, and/or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates;

* how many types of lasers to continue developing, particularly given constraints on Navy funding, and the relative merits of types currently being developed; and

* the potential implications of shipboard lasers for the design and acquisition of Navy ships, including the Flight III DDG-51 destroyer that the Navy wants to begin procuring in FY2016.

Along with deciding whether to keep funding the development of potential shipboard lasers, other options for lawmakers "include, among other things, encouraging or directing the Navy or some other DOD organization to perform an analysis of alternatives (AOA) comparing the cost-effectiveness of lasers and traditional kinetic weapons (such as missiles and guns) for countering surface, air, and missile targets, and encouraging or directing the Navy to adopt a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, and/or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates," according to CRS.

View the full report.