The United States plans to begin deploying weaponized lasers on ships in 2019, reflecting an explosion of new technologies coming on line and Navy efforts to keep outpace a technical arms race with competitors, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told guests at the Brookings Institution on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2019) The United States plans to begin deploying weaponized lasers on ships in 2019, reflecting an explosion of new technologies coming on line and Navy efforts to keep outpace a technical arms race with competitors, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told guests at the Brookings Institution on Monday."Because of advances in engineering and computers, this directed energy business, we're going to putting some pretty capable lasers on ships this year," Richardson said.
Richardson also spoke of a future Navy that includes remote controlled drone ships, a far flung network of sensors linked to control centers in networks of artificial intelligence and machine learning that are distributed across the entire Navy.
"The idea of autonomous vehicles ... your head almost explodes in terms of what that will mean for a capability standpoint," he said.
Richard said he was confident that the United States could meet and surpass technological developments of adversaries, but warned that the US system of military procurement poses a potential obstacle.
"Potentially a strategic Achilles heel is our ability to move with urgency to get these systems from the laboratory out into the fleet," he said.
Richard called for the military, private companies and government to develop a cultural bias for getting things done quickly.
