Navy's future: Electric guns, lasers, water as fuel
The USS Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy's
newest warship, floats out of dry dock Monday, October 28, in Bath,
Maine. The first of the new DDG-1000 class of destroyers, it will be the Navy's largest stealthy ship when it begins missions.
U.S. Navy's new stealth destroyer
That's the glimpse of the
high-tech future the U.S. Navy gave this week. And these aren't just
ideas. They've all been shown to work to some degree.
Saturday, the Navy will
christen its most advanced warship ever, the destroyer USS Zumwalt,
which may one day be using these new technologies.
The Zumwalt, which was launched last year
and is to be christened at Bath Iron Works in Maine, is the Navy's
first stealth destroyer. At 610 feet long and 80 feet wide, it's about
100 feet longer and 20 feet wider than ships in the Navy's current fleet
of Arleigh Burke class destroyers, but the canopy and the rest of the
Zumwalt is built on angles that help make it 50 times harder to spot on
radar than an ordinary destroyer.
"It has the radar
cross-section of a fishing boat," Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval
Sea Systems Command, told CNN when the ship was launched last year.
In its current
configuration, the Zumwalt will carry a considerable arsenal of weapons,
including two Advanced Gun Systems (AGS), which can fire
rocket-powered, computer-guided shells that can destroy targets 63 miles
away. That's three times farther than ordinary destroyer guns can fire.
But in the future, it could be fitted with the even more advanced systems the Navy talked about this week.
The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) will be tested at sea this summer.
One, a laser weapon
prototype, will be tested aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce
in the Persian Gulf this summer, the Navy said.
"This is a revolutionary
capability," Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of Naval Research, said in
a statement. "This very affordable technology is going to change the
way we fight and save lives."
The laser weapon is
design to take on aircraft or small surface vessels that may pose
threats to Navy ships. Tests in 2011 and 2012 showed it can accomplish
that mission.
The laser can be fired by one sailor using a video game-like console and do it at little cost, the Navy said.
"Spending about $1 per
shot of a directed-energy source that never runs out gives us an
alternative to firing costly munitions at inexpensive threats," Klunder
said.
The Navy thinks the
other weapon prototype it discussed this week, the electromagnetic
railgun, will save money while providing a more potent force.
The EM Railgun launches projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants.
The gun uses
electromagnetic force to send a missile to a range of 125 miles at 7.5
times the speed of sound, according to the Navy. When it hits its
target, the projectile does its damage with sheer speed. It does not
have an explosive warhead.
"The electromagnetic
railgun represents an incredible new offensive capability for the U.S.
Navy," Rear Adm. Bryant Fuller, the Navy's chief engineer, said in a
statement. "This capability will allow us to effectively counter a wide
range of threats at a relatively low cost, while keeping our ships and
sailors safer by removing the need to carry as many high-explosive
weapons."
The railgun projectiles could cost about 1/100th the price of current missiles, according to Klunder.
The Navy said the
railgun will be tested at sea aboard the USS Millinocket, a non-combat
ship known as a joint high-speed vessel, in 2016. No decision has been
made on which combat ships might eventually be deployed with a railgun.
No matter what ships are
chosen, other Navy scientists said this week those vessels may someday
draw their fuel from the oceans they're crossing.
Researchers at the U.S.
Naval Research Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division,
said this week they have demonstrated proof-of-concept on the ability to
draw carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater and turn it into forms
of gasoline.
Heather Willauer, a Naval Research Laboratory chemist, called the technology "game changing."
"This is the first time
technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for
transition, from the laboratory, to full-scale commercial
implementation," she said in a statement.
The lab's researchers
used "an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange
module" to remove the carbon dioxide from the water and produce hydrogen
gas in the process.
"The gases are then
converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor
system," the research lab's statement said.
The fuel produced was used to power the engine of a small model aircraft, the researchers said.
The process could be
ramped up to produce a replacement for jet fuel at a cost of $3 to $6
per gallon within a decade, the researchers said. That step would come
on land, with versions to be used on ships coming later, they said.
Writing on the Navy's official blog this week,
Vice Adm. Phil Cullom, deputy chief of Naval Operations for Fleet
Readiness and Logistics, also called the new technology "game changing"
and potentially life saving.
"After more than a
decade of war, our adversaries have found certain soft underbellies to
our operations. They know that when you go after the logistics and
resupply of fuel, that's an easier target than confronting our frontline
forces. What if we removed that from the equation? Can you imagine a
time when an aircraft carrier doesn't have to wait for the oiler to come
steaming alongside it to deliver jet fuel? It truly does change things.
It prevents what could one day be our 'maritime IED moment,'" Cullom
wrote.
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