The U.S. Navy’s\u00a0Arleigh Burke<\/em>\u00a0class destroyer USS\u00a0Preble<\/em>\u00a0is now armed with a High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance system,\u00a0or HELIOS<\/a>.\u00a0Preble<\/em>\u00a0is the first of the service’s ships to be equipped with HELIOS, which is a 60-kilowatt class directed energy laser weapon, and is also the first to have any such weapon integrated with\u00a0the Aegis combat system<\/a>. The destroyer joins a small, but growing number of Navy vessels equipped\u00a0with directed energy weapons<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0various types<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor behind HELIOS, issued\u00a0a press release last week<\/a>\u00a0announcing the installation of the system onboard\u00a0Preble<\/em>, but pictures on\u00a0the ship’s official Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0show it had been installed weeks before then. In March, the company\u00a0said it had completed<\/a>\u00a0land-based testing of the system at a range at Wallops Island, Virginia, and that it was being shipped to\u00a0Preble<\/em>‘s homeport of San Diego for integration onto the destroyer.<\/p>\n \u201cLockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy share a common vision and enthusiasm for developing and providing disruptive laser weapon systems,” Rick Cordaro, vice president of Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions, said in a statement in\u00a0the August 18 press release<\/a>. “HELIOS enhances the overall combat system effectiveness of the ship to deter future threats and provide additional protection for Sailors, and we understand we must provide scalable solutions customized to the Navy\u2019s priorities.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lockheed Martin received its first contract from the Navy for work on HELIOS in 2018, but the system builds on\u00a0a much longer history<\/a>\u00a0of directed energy research and development at the company. You can read more about Lockheed Martin successes in turning the idea of operationally viable laser weapons like HELIOS, developments that had been largely in the realm of science fiction for decades, into a reality in\u00a0this past\u00a0War Zone<\/em>\u00a0feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n Preble<\/em>‘s new laser is installed in front of the ship’s main superstructure on a modified platform that was originally designed to accommodate a 20mm Vulcan cannon-armed\u00a0Mk 15 Phalanx Close-in Weapon System<\/a>\u00a0(CIWS). Flight IIA subvariants of the\u00a0Arleigh Burke<\/em>\u00a0class like\u00a0Prebl<\/em>e never had a CIWS installed in this position, but these ships do still have another one toward the stern.<\/p>\n HELIOS, as its name indicates, is a multi-purpose system. It is powerful enough to damage or destroy certain target sets, such as\u00a0smaller drones<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0boats<\/a>. In this way, it offers something of a limited substitute for the lost CIWS and provides a layer of defense against these targets, which can be particularly threatening to ships like\u00a0Preble<\/em>\u00a0when\u00a0operating in swarms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The system can also act as a “dazzler” to blind or confuse optical sensors on enemy ships and aircraft, and optical seekers on incoming missiles and other munitions. When used in this way, HELIOS can potentially throw off incoming weapons or limit an opponent’s general situational awareness and surveillance capabilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lastly, HELIOS has its own optical sensors, which are primarily used to spot, track, and cue the laser, but that can also be used in a secondary surveillance role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On\u00a0Arleigh Burke<\/em>\u00a0class destroyers like\u00a0Preble<\/em>\u00a0and other ships equipped with versions of\u00a0the Aegis Combat System<\/a>, HELIOS promises to be even more capable and flexible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Rich Calabrese, Director of Surface Navy Mission Systems for Lockheed Martin, had the following to say about HELIOS and Aegis during a broader interview\u00a0with\u00a0The War Zone<\/em>‘s<\/a>\u00a0own Tyler Rogoway about the latter system last year:<\/p>\n “We\u2019re continuously upgrading the multi-source integration infusion capability of the Aegis weapon system and looking to bring in new weapons and sensors and do coordinated hard kill and soft kill. Directed energy weapons\u2026 We’re really already integrating the\u00a0HELIOS Laser Weapon System\u00a0with the Aegis Weapon System CSL [Common Source Library] in our lab here in New Jersey. In fact, we’ve… The guy who’s now managing the laser program… He let me know the other day that we recently fired a laser here under the control of the Aegis Weapon System computer program. So, we’re building in the capability to do that weapon coordination and to do the hard kill, soft kill coordination in an automated fashion, working with the HELIOS Weapon System.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lockheed Martin is already on contract to\u00a0deliver at least one more<\/a>\u00a0HELIOS system to the Navy for integration on another\u00a0Arleigh Burke<\/em>\u00a0class destroyer, and there is certainly the potential for additional examples to eventually make their way onto various classes of ships. Lockheed Martin designed the system with future capability growth in mind, as well, and there has already been talk about increasing the maximum power of the laser\u00a0up to 150 kilowatts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “HELIOS represents a solid foundation for incremental delivery of robust and powerful laser weapon system capabilities.\u201d Rick Cordaro, the Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions vice president, had added in his statement last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Navy has made clear that HELIOS is just one part of its full directed energy ambitions, which are now set to eventually include\u00a0high-power microwave-based systems<\/a>, too. In the past, the service has described this particular system as Increment 1 in a larger Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS) program plan.<\/p>\n As part of the Navy’s broader directed energy weapon efforts, a number of other\u00a0Arleigh Burke<\/em>\u00a0class destroyers, including the\u00a0USS\u00a0Dewey<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0USS\u00a0Stockdale<\/em><\/a>, are now equipped with the less powerful\u00a0Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy<\/a>\u00a0(ODIN). Unlike HELIOS, the laser on ODIN is only capable of being used as a dazzler, though the complete system also has secondary surveillance capabilities.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/preble-san-diego-helios.webp\")
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