The head of the U.S. Navy believes the new Trump-class of battleships, called the “Golden Fleet,” should come equipped with lasers powerful enough to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles or hypersonic weapons.
The battleships, announced by President Donald Trump in December, are already being developed with powerful long-range and nuclear cruise missiles to combat U.S. adversaries. It is the first time a battleship-class vessel has been commissioned since the USS Missouri in 1944.
Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle, who has been focused on laser weapons – also known as directed energy weapons – for years, believes there is more that could be done for the new battleships.
“We’ve got to have different lasers, I think, going forward on the battleship to make them effective,” Caudle said during the Surface Navy Association National Symposium earlier this month.
“I’m telling you that I don’t think a one-megawatt laser is beyond what should be on that battery,” Caudle added, according to The War Zone.
Currently, the Navy’s directed energy weapon capabilities operate on two systems installed on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
The current laser systems can produce around 60 to 120 kilowatts – enough to combat incoming drones, small missiles, or “dazzle” adversaries with flash blindness.
One megawatt, which is 1,000 kilowatts, is capable of producing much more damage.
However, experts have warned that the newly-comissioned battleship class already faces massive hurdles, and adding a more powerful laser would only increase the challenges.
It’s no secret that the U.S. Navy has struggled to build ships and submarines on schedule and budget. Nearly every ship currently under construction is at least a year behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Largely, that is because shipyards lack the physical space and updated infrastructure needed to complete the project, as well as the shipbuilders to meet the Navy’s demands. The government contracts with private companies to provide services, but those companies can struggle to recruit and retain staff.
On top of the current challenges, the U.S. Navy has not commissioned a battleship in more than eight decades. The U.S. stopped using battleships in the 1990s, finding them costly to maintain and emerging technology able to operate more effectively.
Trump announced two battleships would be constructed as part of the new “Golden Fleet” to combat U.S. adversaries, such as China, surpassing the U.S. in ship capacity.
Engineers will also have to confront other hurdles, such as how to effectively build a powerful laser on the ship.
“Laser power is not the issue,” Caudle said. “It’s the form factor. It’s the engineering of the power to get the density of that in a shipboard design. That’s the challenge.”
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