No, it’s not the 1st of April yet, so it is not a joke - US Navy Engineers are working on a solution to replace the big caliber fire weapons on their combat vehicles with laser cannons.
The reason for doing this is that they want to take down enemy missiles and drones faster than with bullets, as they have an increased dispersion at high distance.
The laser technology is researched by the Navy for quite some time. Until now, they have managed to slowly burn through a small boat’s engine in the first tests. Lately, several small-sized test drones were successfully destroyed at sea.
Anyway, laser technology will have to advance more in order to equip medium-sized land vehicles with such things. As it is not very optimized yet, a laser cannon can weigh about 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) and needs at least 25-50 kW of electricity to work. As the power have to be portable, they will need huge batteries, and would require systems that will keep them working in various conditions.
Source: US Navy (Federal Business Opportunities)
The laser technology is researched by the Navy for quite some time. Until now, they have managed to slowly burn through a small boat’s engine in the first tests. Lately, several small-sized test drones were successfully destroyed at sea.
Anyway, laser technology will have to advance more in order to equip medium-sized land vehicles with such things. As it is not very optimized yet, a laser cannon can weigh about 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) and needs at least 25-50 kW of electricity to work. As the power have to be portable, they will need huge batteries, and would require systems that will keep them working in various conditions.
Source: US Navy (Federal Business Opportunities)