The U.S. Navy Seeks to Build a Laser Weapon Fleet

Reference News Network, May 26 report According to the U.S. Army Times website on May 22, the "Epic Fury" operation may further demonstrate the value of directed energy weapons, but the U.S. Navy's vision of equipping every warship with laser weapons may take much longer than expected.

On May 14, U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Daryl Caudle presented a situational report to the House Armed Services Committee, strongly arguing for the necessity of high-energy laser weapons for the Navy—specifically, to replace kinetic interceptors with laser weapons for missile defense tasks, thereby freeing up space on the Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for offensive weapons.

Caudle stated, "Directed energy is a key component of future naval warfare, especially in the areas of ballistic missile defense and terminal defense. The current model is unsustainable; due to the limited space in vertical launch systems, we can only make trade-offs between defensive interceptors and offensive weapons. Every vertical launch cell used for defensive missiles means losing an opportunity for long-range strike."

However, Caudle admitted that the vision of building a fleet of laser weapons remains a dream that has yet to be realized—at least until the Navy has the actual construction capability.

The vision of a laser weapons fleet outlined by Caudle in the situational report relies on the Navy's planned nuclear-powered battleships and future generations of surface combatants. These new types of combat platforms need to be designed from the outset with power and cooling systems capable of supporting the high-power operation of directed energy weapons, in order to create the lethality needed to counter high-end threats.

Caudle emphasized the need to build a new generation of warships because the U.S. Navy's current surface vessels—including the most advanced Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyers—cannot support the power demands of large-scale laser weapons. As early as 2019, then-Navy Surface Warfare Director Ron Boxall stated that the Flight III destroyers have no electrical margin; the power generated by the onboard generators is fully allocated to the AN/SPY-6 air defense and missile defense radar system.

Laser weapons must be integrated into the next generation of warships from the keel design stage.

The conclusion is very clear: the U.S. Navy's first true laser weapon warship will not appear until the first new battleship or new generation of frigates is completed and launched. The U.S. military plans to start battleship procurement in 2028, and even if everything goes smoothly, delivery and commissioning will have to wait until the 2030s.

Theoretically, the cost of each laser weapon launch is only $10, which can undertake the defense tasks of the ship, leaving all vertical launch cells for Tomahawk cruise missiles to execute offensive strikes and for Standard-6 missiles to respond to remaining high-end threats. This can transform destroyers from a compromise platform balancing offense and defense into a platform prioritizing the delivery of long-range firepower.

In the situational report, Caudle also designed a transitional path between current surface warships and the future laser fleet: a containerized capability deployment plan. He introduced that this plan does not require large-scale structural modifications to the vessels and can deploy missiles, unmanned systems, sensors, electronic warfare kits, and directed energy weapons across various platforms and shore-based positions. (Translated by Guo Jun)