By Spencer Ackerman
Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of Naval research,
salutes Virginia Tech’s humanoid robot CHARLI-2 at the Office of Naval
Research’s science and technology expo, Oct. 22, 2012. Photo: Wired.com/Jared
Soares
Never mind looming defense cuts or residual technical challenges. The Navy’s
chief futurist is pushing up the anticipated date for when sailors can expect to
use laser weapons on the decks of their ships, and raising expectations for
robotic submarines.
“On directed energy” — the term for the Navy’s laser cannons, “I’d say two
years,” Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of the Office of Naval Research,
told Danger Room in a Monday interview. The previous estimate, which came from
Klunder’s laser technicians earlier this year, was that it will
take four years at the earliest for a laser gun to come aboard.
“We’re well past physics,” Klunder said, echoing a mantra for the Office of
Naval Research’s laser specialists. Now, the questions surrounding a weapon once
thought to be purely science fiction sound almost pedestrian. “We’re just going
through the integration efforts,” Klunder continued. “Hopefully, that tells you
we’re well mature, and we’re ready to put these on naval ships.”
Klunder isn’t worried about the ships generating sufficient energy to fill
the laser gun’s magazine, which has been an engineering concern of the Navy’s
for years. “I’ve got the power,” said Klunder, who spoke during the Office of
Naval Research’s biennial science and technology conference. “I just need to
know on this ship, this particular naval vessel, what are the power
requirements, and how do I integrate that directed energy system or railgun
system.”
“BIOSwimmer” drone submarines, manufactured by Boston
Engineering Corporation, were on display at the Office Of Naval Research’s
science and technology expo, Oct. 22, 2012. Photo: Wired.com/Jared
Soares
That’s a relief for the Navy. It means that the Navy’s future ships probably
won’t have to make captains choose between maneuvering their ships and firing
their laser weapons out of fear
they’d overload their power supplies.
But shipboard testing is underway.
Klunder wouldn’t elaborate, but he said that there have been “very successful”
tests placing laser weapons on board a ship. That’s not to say the first order
of business for naval laser weaponry will be all that taxing: In their early
stages, Pentagon officials talk about using lasers to
shoot down drones or enable better sensing. Klunder alluded to recent tests
in which the Navy’s lasers brought drones down, although he declined to
elaborate.
Then come the unmanned submarines. Current,
commercially available drone subs typically swim for several days at a time,
according to Frank Herr, an Office of Naval Research department head who works
on so-called unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs. That’s way behind the
capabilities that successive
Navy leaders want: crossing entire
oceans without needing to refuel. So Klunder wants to raise the bar.
“The propulsion systems that I think you’re going to see within a year are
going to [give] a UUV with over 30 days of endurance,” Klunder said. By 2016, a
prototype drone sub for the office’s Long Duration Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
program should be able to spend 60
days underwater at a time: “That’s ahead of schedule of what we told the
secretary of the Navy a year ago.”
Read more at - http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/lasers/#more-94814
Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of Naval research,
salutes Virginia Tech’s humanoid robot CHARLI-2 at the Office of Naval
Research’s science and technology expo, Oct. 22, 2012. Photo: Wired.com/Jared
Soares
“BIOSwimmer” drone submarines, manufactured by Boston
Engineering Corporation, were on display at the Office Of Naval Research’s
science and technology expo, Oct. 22, 2012. Photo: Wired.com/Jared
Soares
