Fox News:

Ship-fired laser weapons incinerate, destroy, and surveil enemy targets at sea at quickly-increasing ranges, inspiring Navy weapons developers to fast-track a growing sphere of directed energy weapons for surface ships.

Lasers were recently mentioned by the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, in a report from SeaPower Magazine. Gilday said that the Navy would quickly buy more submarines, hypersonic missiles, and laser weapons for maritime warfare, in the event that the service received an extra $5 billion in budget money, a move which, if possible, might greatly address an anticipated attack and ballistic-missile submarine shortage expected in coming years.

Gilday told participants at the U.S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington webcast that some of the money would go to shipbuilding, “most notably submarines,” the report says.

In the SeaPower report, Gilday is also quoted as saying he wants to go “way faster” with lasers, adding “I need to be able to knock down missiles.” Sure enough, Gilday’s comments go along with fast-moving efforts on amphibs, destroyers, and even carriers, to arm ships with low-cost, high-impact offensive and defensive laser weapons. Lasers are not only quiet at times and therefore stealthy, but they are also precise and scalable, meaning that laser bands can be combined to strengthen attack, increase power, or conversely be set to “stun” or merely disable an enemy asset without needing a full kill…

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