WASHINGTON - The US Navy has successfully installed its first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) laser weapon aboard one of its warships. During dry-dock operations, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) received the stand-alone laser system, which is designed to blind the sensors on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), reports David Szondy for NewAtlas.com. Continue reading original article.
The installation looks most like renderings of the Lockheed Martin High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) laser weapon system, which is set to be installed in that position on a Burke-class destroyer for its initial fielding.
US Navy Deploys First Anti-drone Laser Dazzler Weapon
The Preble will be outfitted in 2021 with the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler With Surveillance system, or HELIOS ( -uas-systems-and-policies/us-navy-awards-lockheed-martin-usd150-million-contract-anti-drone-systems/).
The U.S. Navy recently installed the first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN), a laser weapon system that allows a ship to counter unmanned aerial systems. The first system was installed on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105), during her recently completed Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability.
Naval officials announced the deployment on February 20, explaining that this defensive laser system went from being a concept to a fully installed system in around 2.5 years. This is the first time a standalone system capable of functioning as a 'dazzler' has been operationally employed on a destroyer.
Naval News understands that a Lockheed Martin HELIOS laser weapon system will be installed aboard USS Preble during a depot maintenance period (DMP) availability . The Pearl Harbor-based destroyer will be the first of its type to be equipped with a high-energy laser to counter surface craft and unmanned aerial systems
ODIN is the first operational deployment of a laser dazzler, a Navy official said, adding that the stand-alone system is equipped with a laser that can temporarily degrade intelligencegathering capabilities of unmanned aerial systems.
SNLWS Increment 1 is called HELIOS, an acronym meaning high energy laser with integrated optical dazzler and surveillance. The HELIOS effort is focused on rapid development and rapid fielding of a 60 kW-class high-energy laser (with growth potential to 150 kW) and dazzler in an integrated weapon system, for use in countering UAVs, small boats, and ISR sensors, and for combat identification and battle damage assessment. The Navy's FY2021 budget submission states that HELIOS
The Navy is planning to install the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS) directed energy (DE) system on a DDG-51 Flight IIA destroyer by FY 2021 as it learns how to integrate laser weapons on its ships, a top official said Wednesday [March 20].
The U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble is now armed with a High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance system, or HELIOS. Preble is the first of the service's ships to be equipped with HELIOS, which is a 60-kilowatt class directed energy laser weapon, and is also the first to have any such weapon integrated with the Aegis combat system. The destroyer joins a small, but growing number of Navy vessels equipped with directed energy weapons of various types.
Lockheed Martin received its first contract from the Navy for work on HELIOS in 2018, but the system builds on a much longer history of directed energy research and development at the company. You can read more about Lockheed Martin successes in turning the idea of operationally viable laser weapons like HELIOS, developments that had been largely in the realm of science fiction for decades, into a reality in this past War Zone feature.
As part of the Navy's broader directed energy weapon efforts, a number of other Arleigh Burke class destroyers, including the USS Dewey and USS Stockdale, are now equipped with the less powerful Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN). Unlike HELIOS, the laser on ODIN is only capable of being used as a dazzler, though the complete system also has secondary surveillance capabilities.
The same statement mentions that the system is not only the most powerful combat laser weapon the company has delivered to date but also notes that the contractor made the delivery ahead of the schedule first set out by the DOD when they were awarded the contract back in 2019.
The video of the laser weapon at work during a deployment comes more than a year after we reported on what could be a shift in U.S. military tactics. News of the plans to deploy the weapon system first emerged in the spring of 2013, when a laser successfully destroyed a drone aircraft, as we reported.
In this rapidly evolving threat landscape, laser weapons suddenly become appealing. For instance, the US Navy has an ongoing program called HELIOS (High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, which aims to install a laser weapon system on a DDG Arleigh Burke class destroyer. The Air Force is currently testing the High Energy Laser Weapon System 2, made by Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, with the primary goal of disabling enemy drones.
The first prototype HELIOS laser weapons system (LWS) was already being integrated on an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer in 2020, while the second went to the White Sands Missile Range for laboratory testing that same year. HELIOS is a unique scalable 60kW LWS enabling the integration of multiple fire modes, and is thus capable of dazzling electro-optical sensors and gathering intelligence as well as inflicting significant thermal damage to hostile targets, a versatile and transformative weapons capability which still remains unattainable for many nations worldwide.
According to the Navy, the install marks the first operational deployment of the system, which functions as a dazzler -- a non-lethal weapon that uses intense directed radiation to temporarily disable its target -- and allows the Navy to rapidly combat unmanned aerial threats.
The US destroyer Preble will be the first to be equipped with the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler With Surveillance system, or HELIOS, in 2021, US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported on 27 May 2019. HELIOS will function as a faster close-in weapon that uses light beams to "defend against Chinese or Russian cruise missiles," the report said, claiming that China's in-development drone swarm is also a target of the laser.
On 01 March 2018 the U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $150 million contract, with options worth up to $942.8 million, for the development, manufacture and delivery of two high power laser weapon systems, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and counter-Unmanned Aerial System (counter-UAS) capabilities, by fiscal year 2020. With the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS) system, Lockheed Martin will help the Navy take a major step forward in its goal to field laser weapon systems aboard surface ships.
HELIOS combines three key capabilities, brought together for the first time in one weapon system: A high-energy laser system: The high-energy fiber laser will be designed to counter unmanned aerial systems and small boats. The energy and thermal management system will leverage Lockheed Martin experience on Department of Defense programs, and the cooling system will be designed for maximum adaptability onboard ships. In addition, Lockheed Martin will bring decades of shipboard integration experience, reducing risk and increasing reliability. A long-range ISR capability: HELIOS sensors will be part of an integrated weapon system, designed to provide decision-makers with maximum access to information. HELIOS data will be available on the Lockheed Martin-led Aegis Combat System. A counter-UAS dazzler capability: The HELIOS dazzler will be designed to obscure adversarial UAS-based ISR capabilities.
"The HELIOS program is the first of its kind, and brings together laser weapon, long-range ISR and counter-UAS capabilities, dramatically increasing the situational awareness and layered defense options available to the U.S. Navy," said Michele Evans, vice president and general manager of Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors. "This is a true system of capabilities, and we're honored the Navy trusted Lockheed Martin to be a part of fielding these robust systems to the fleet."
If space is to become a new potential zone of conflict, its unique nature demands that unmanned systems play a key, and perhaps near-exclusive, role. Not only do weapons in space need to stay up there a long time, but the major challenge of fighting in space is first getting things into space. It costs roughly $9,100 a pound to launch anything into space with the Space Shuttle. So, if a system is to be manned, the human and each and every pound of water, food, and oxygen tanks to keep them alive is expensive to send. Likewise, manned systems in space are incredibly vulnerable (one bullet or laser hole and there goes all the air).
LWSD is a high-energy laser weapon system demonstrator developed by the Office of Naval Research and installed on Portland for at-sea demonstrations. Its deployment on a Pacific Fleet ship is the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser. The laser system was developed by Northrup Grumman, with full system and ship integration and testing led by NSWC Dahlgren and Port Hueneme. 2ff7e9595c
Commentaires