U.S. Navy Allowed to Use Persian Gulf Laser for Defense
Except from article published on news.usni.org on 12/10/2004
The U.S. Navy has declared an experimental laser weapon on its Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) in the Persian Gulf an operational asset and U.S. Central Command has given permission for the commander of the ship to defend itself with the weapon, the head of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) told reporters on Wednesday.
Zekiah integrated video feeds, radars, data recorders, navigation systems, and other mission critical systems in real time to enable a single shipboard personnel with a single console to manage LaWS. System went out for testing on the USS Ponce in August and is now approved as an operational asset.