{"id":1071887,"date":"2026-05-22T10:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/us-navy-destroyers-laser-weapons-directed-energy-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T10:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:47:29","slug":"us-navy-destroyers-laser-weapons-directed-energy-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/us-navy-destroyers-laser-weapons-directed-energy-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine US Destroyers Are Already Carrying Lasers \u2014 Here They Are"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n<p>The U.S. Navy has been talking about putting lasers on warships since the Reagan administration. For most of those forty years it was vapourware \u2014 promising prototypes, expensive demonstrators, headlines that never quite turned into deployed systems. That changed quietly in the past three years. There are now nine American surface combatants at sea with operational laser weapons already mounted on them \u2014 and the Navy is preparing to expand the fleet considerably.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f0f0f0;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:8px;font-size:14px;line-height:1.6\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Ships currently equipped:<\/strong> Nine U.S. Navy surface combatants (predominantly Arleigh Burke-class destroyers)<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Primary system:<\/strong> Helios \u2014 60-kilowatt class solid-state laser, integrated with the Aegis combat system<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Secondary systems:<\/strong> ODIN (Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy) \u2014 counter-ISR laser dazzler<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Range:<\/strong> Effective against small drones, fast attack craft, small boats at line-of-sight ranges<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Lead ship:<\/strong> USS Preble (DDG-88) \u2014 first to receive operational Helios in 2022<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Power requirement:<\/strong> About 600 kilowatts of electrical demand for a 60kW laser shot<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Why now:<\/strong> The cost ratio per shot \u2014 a few dollars of electricity vs millions for a missile interceptor \u2014 became impossible to ignore after the Red Sea Houthi campaign<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Limit:<\/strong> Atmospheric attenuation: lasers degrade rapidly in rain, fog, dust, and at long range<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The post-Red Sea calculation<\/h2>\n\n<p>For the U.S. Navy, the case for naval lasers stopped being academic during the 2024-2025 Red Sea campaign against Houthi drones. American destroyers were firing $2 million SM-2 missiles at $2,000 Iranian-built Shahed drones. Per intercept. By the hundreds. The arithmetic was unsustainable and everybody in the Pentagon knew it.<\/p>\n\n<p>A solid-state laser solves the cost problem at a stroke. A single shot costs a few dollars in electricity. The magazine is effectively unlimited \u2014 limited only by the ship\u2019s ability to generate electrical power and dissipate waste heat. Against a small fast-moving drone at five kilometres, the laser does what a missile does at one ten-thousandth of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=1246293354  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/7\/72\/USS_Preble_DDG-88.jpg\/1280px-USS_Preble_DDG-88.jpg\" alt=\"USS Preble DDG-88\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">USS Preble (DDG-88) \u2014 the first U.S. Navy surface combatant to receive the operational Helios laser in 2022. The laser sits atop the forward 5-inch gun, integrated with the Aegis combat system. (US Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The nine destroyers<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Navy has been guarded about exactly which ships carry which lasers, but TWZ\u2019s recent reporting confirms a fleet of nine surface combatants now operating with directed-energy weapons of some kind. The Helios installation \u2014 the more capable of the two main systems \u2014 is on a small group of Arleigh Burke Flight IIA destroyers operating in the Indo-Pacific and the Eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n\n<p>USS Preble (DDG-88), USS Stockdale (DDG-106), and several others in their squadrons have visible turret installations forward of the bridge. The smaller ODIN system \u2014 primarily a sensor-blinding dazzler rather than a destruction weapon \u2014 is more widely distributed across the fleet. ODIN can interrupt the optical-camera sensors of incoming threats; Helios can physically destroy the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/5\/52\/Lisa_Franchetti_2023.jpg\/440px-Lisa_Franchetti_2023.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"flex-shrink:0\"><img data-opt-id=339712587  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/5\/52\/Lisa_Franchetti_2023.jpg\/440px-Lisa_Franchetti_2023.jpg\" alt=\"Admiral Lisa Franchetti\" style=\"width:96px;height:96px;border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center;display:block;border:2px solid #ddd\"><\/a><div><em>&ldquo;Directed energy is no longer a science project. We have it on ships. It works. The next decade is about scaling it from a handful of demonstrators to a fleet-wide capability, with the power density to handle the actual threat catalogue.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Admiral Lisa Franchetti<\/strong> &mdash; Chief of Naval Operations<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What the lasers can and cannot do<\/h2>\n\n<p>The honest answer: today\u2019s naval lasers are excellent against soft targets at short to medium range in good weather. They can melt a small commercial-grade drone in seconds. They can knock out the optical sensors of a faster, more sophisticated drone. They can damage the engine of a small boat. They can blind the seeker head of an anti-ship missile in some circumstances.<\/p>\n\n<p>What they cannot do is replace the SM-6 against a supersonic anti-ship missile, or the SM-3 against a ballistic missile, or even reliably defeat a hardened Iranian drone in heavy weather. Atmospheric attenuation is the laser\u2019s mortal enemy. Rain, fog, sea spray, and atmospheric turbulence all degrade the beam. A 60-kilowatt laser that destroys a drone in six seconds in calm weather may need thirty seconds \u2014 or fail entirely \u2014 in a Gulf of Aden sandstorm.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Where this goes next<\/h2>\n\n<p>The next-generation system the Navy is pushing toward is a 300+ kilowatt class laser \u2014 Helios++ in industry shorthand. At that power level, the kill range against small drones extends out to about 10 kilometres in good conditions, and the system becomes effective against larger, more hardened targets including cruise missiles in their terminal phase. The Navy is also looking at integrating high-power microwave systems for drone-swarm defence, where lasers struggle to engage multiple targets simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n<p>The bigger structural question is power. Modern destroyers were not designed for 600-kilowatt continuous electrical loads. Future cruisers and destroyers will need integrated power systems \u2014 the kind built into the Zumwalt class \u2014 to support the next generation of directed-energy weapons. That conversation is now front and centre in the FY2027 Navy budget.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;border-radius:8px\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YyzGdvbVL0c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Watch: U.S. Navy laser weapon demonstrations and Helios operational footage \u2014 the technology now deployed on nine American destroyers.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: The War Zone (Ian Ellis-Jones, 20 May 2026); U.S. Navy public statements; Lockheed Martin Helios programme briefings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/mystery-weapon-appears-on-navy-destroyer\">Mystery Weapon Appears on Navy Destroyer<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/drone-boat-downs-a-shahed-ukraines-naval-first\">Drone Boat Downs a Shahed: Ukraine\u2019s Naval First<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nine U.S. Navy surface combatants are already operating with laser weapons \u2014 and the Red Sea campaign has made the case for fleet-wide expansion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":1071889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Nine US Navy Destroyers Now Carry Laser Weapons","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The US Navy now operates laser weapons on nine surface combatants, with the Helios 60kW system at the front of the fleet-wide rollout.","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1071887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nine US Navy Destroyers Now Carry Laser Weapons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Navy now operates laser weapons on nine surface combatants, with the Helios 60kW system at the front of the fleet-wide rollout.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/us-navy-destroyers-laser-weapons-directed-energy-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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