Navy's
future: Electric guns, lasers, water as fuel
|
By
Brad Lendon, CNN
updated
2:10 PM EDT, Thu April 10, 2014 | Filed under: Innovations
|
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.
HIDE CAPTION
U.S. Navy's new stealth
CNN)
-- Imagine ships that fire missiles at seven times the speed of sound without
using explosives, or that use lasers to destroy threats at the cost of about a
dollar a shot, and vessels making fuel from the very seawater in which they're
floating.
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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