Small boat, zapped

This is one of the remotely piloted, unmanned small boats that served as a moving target for the firing of the Maritime Laser Demonstrator in early 2011, toward the end of open ocean testing that ran from October 2010 to April 2011. Here, the laser has started a fire in one of the boat's engines. (Click here for video of the test.)

Over three days at sea during that particular demonstration, the laser was operated at high power more than 35 times and "withstood the stresses" of waves in excess of seven feet high, according to Northrop Grumman. The Maritime Laser Demonstrator, installed on a decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer, the USS Paul Foster, also was the first laser system to be integrated with a ship's radar and navigation systems.

"The results show that all critical technologies for an operational laser weapon system are mature enough to begin a formal weapon system development program," Steve Hixson, vice president, space and directed energy systems at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector, said in a statement. "Solid-state laser weapons are ready to transition to the fleet."