On Phasers and Photon Torpedoes
Multiple, recent papers from the Navy think tank community 1 has espoused the benefits of solid state lasers (SSLs), electromagnetic rail guns and hyper velocity projectiles (HVPs) to increase the magazine depth of Navy ships when defending against cruise and ballistic missile strikes. LaWS on Ponce However none of these technologies has come close to shooting down even simulated cruise missiles. At best SSLs have shot down small, light weight UAVs. BAE HVP Current HVP programs haven't even done this. They are still heavily in the research phase. The one exception is the OTO Melara Strales/DART program, which appears to be far closer to production. However, it is purely a Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) replacement. It's unclear to me how many successful tests of this system have occurred. OTO Melara Strales 76mm gun OTO Melara DART munition Before we "bet the farm" on the transformational power of SSLs and HVPs to allow ou...