U.S. Navy set to add lasers, rail guns to its arsenal
David Sharp
The Globe and Mail
The United States Navy has decided to add lasers and rail guns to their arsenal in the up coming two year. They are designing lasers to shoot down aerial drones and rail guns that can shoot a projectile at hyper-sonic speeds. They are trying to resort to using there weapons for the economic part. These weapons cost much less than the amount of missiles that they use that will eventually run out where as the lasers and rail guns will not.
The Laser technology has evolved to a point where a single laser will be able to operate by only one sailor. The laser system is designed to target things that the Navy considers asymmetrical threats. These things include aerial drones, speed boats and swarm boats which are all potential threats to warships in the Persian Gulf. The lasers do have some short comings as they are often lose their effectiveness when it is raining, dusty or their is turbulence in the air. They have found ways to deal with bad weather but the range would be reduced a lot.
The rail guns which have been tested on land in Virginia that travels six or seven the steed of sound which is enough velocity to create a lot of damage. The rail also requires a lot of energy to shoot the projectile. The Navy's new destroyer the Zumwalt is the only destroyer that has enough energy to power a rail gun. The Zumwalt's generators create 78 megawatts of power which is enough to power a medium sizes city and more than enough for a rail gun. Engineers are also working on creating a battery system that will allow rail guns to be installed on ships that are currently in the fleet.
Putting the lasers and rail guns onto new ships will be a good thing as apposes to the missile and machine guns before. The lasers and rail guns are much less expensive as missiles. Also you cannot run out of ammunition on them where as apposed to missiles they run out a lot and are very expensive. The U.S. Navy is doing a good job at inventing new and affordable weapons which I think is important to keeping North America safe.
Putting the lasers and rail guns onto new ships will be a good thing as apposes to the missile and machine guns before. The lasers and rail guns are much less expensive as missiles. Also you cannot run out of ammunition on them where as apposed to missiles they run out a lot and are very expensive. The U.S. Navy is doing a good job at inventing new and affordable weapons which I think is important to keeping North America safe.
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