He may not be able to cut a thick sheet of steel in a short time, but the US Navy has shown that his solid laser is capable of incinerating small boats.
MLD (Demonstrative Maritime Laser) it is a 15 kilowatt beam designed specifically to equip ships: its 'civilian' use could ward off attacks by pirates, but it remains a full-blown weapon designed to offend and destroy.
Last Thursday MLD passed its first test, annihilating a small boat with a simple beam at the address of its engine: the target was about a nautical mile, and the laser managed to hit it by perfectly balancing the movements that a ship makes on the 'water.
This is a tiny demonstration of what the (terrible) potential of naval laser systems are: within a few years these weapons will be able to shoot down air-to-air missiles with extreme rapidity and precision, even if the Navy's objectives seem to be much more ambitious.
"It is an important starting point," said Admiral Nevin Carr, director of the Naval Research Office, "but we are looking for a laser with the power of one megawatt." Already. In short, the ray of death.
