https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DbgNju2wE
There are two key takeaways from this video. The first is that somebody in the Navy’s video production department really, really likes ’90s EDM. The second is that holy crap the Navy has a death ray.
We’ve talked about the Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, before, but a quick overview of how it works: LaWS can be configured for both lethal and less-lethal purposes, and it’s essentially a defensive turret. Say, for example, somebody’s driving a suicide boat towards a ship. With LaWS, the Navy could blind the driver with a sudden blast, or just use a pulse of intense heat to trigger the explosive before it arrives.
The Navy isn’t going to be blowing things up from a thousand miles away with this, but who cares? It’s a death ray that comes with a controller. Did we mention the controller? There’s a controller. Suck it, keyboard/mouse advocates, the Navy’s death cannon has a controller!
Joking aside, until now we didn’t know if LaWS would be more than a theory, but this usability test shows us you can put it on a ship and that it can actually work in real conditions. Now, to start installing them on all the ships the Navy owns. Yes, even the rowboats.