Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress Page: 8 of 44

                                
Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress

surface ships against UAVs and anti-ship missiles, particularly in a context of constraints on U.S.
defense spending and competing demands for finite U.S. defense funds.
SSLs, EMRG, and HVP offer a potential for dramatically improving depth of magazine and the
cost exchange ratio:
" Depth of magazine. SSLs are electrically powered, drawing their power from
the ship's overall electrical supply, and can be fired over and over, indefinitely, as
long as the SSL continues to work and the ship has fuel to generate electricity.
The EMRG's projectile and the HVP (which are one and the same-see next
section) can be stored by the hundreds in a Navy surface ship's weapon
magazine.12
" Cost exchange ratio. An SSL can be fired for a marginal cost of less than one
dollar per shot (which is the cost of the fuel needed to generate the electricity
used in the shot), while the EMRG's projectile/HVP has an estimated unit
procurement cost of about $25,000.'3
SSLs, EMRG, and HVP in Brief
SSLs
Overview
The Navy in recent years has leveraged both significant advancements in industrial SSLs and
decades of research and development work on military lasers done by other parts of DOD to
make substantial progress toward deploying high-energy SSLs on Navy surface ships.'4 Navy
surface ships would use high-energy SSLs initially for countering small boats, UAVs, and
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors, and potentially in the future for
countering ASCMs and ASBMs as well.'5 High-energy SSLs on Navy ships would generally be
short-range defensive weapons-they would generally counter targets at ranges of about one mile
to perhaps eventually a few miles.
In addition to a low marginal cost per shot and deep magazine, potential advantages of shipboard
lasers include fast engagement times, an ability to counter radically maneuvering missiles, an
12 In July 2015, the Navy issued a request for information (RFI) to industry for the fabrication of a prototype EMRG
mount that would store a minimum of 650 rounds. (RFI for Fabrication of Prototype Mount for Naval Railgun,
Solicitation Number: N00024-15-R-4132, FedBizOpps.gov, July 29, 2015. See also Justin Doubleday, "Navy
Developing Integrated Mount For Electromagnetic Railgun," Inside the Navy, July 31, 2015.)
" Sources for cost of HVP: David Martin, "Navy's Newest Weapon Kills at Seven Times the Speed of Sound," CBS
News (cbssnews.com), April 7, 2014; Kris Osborn, "Navy Will Test its Electromagnetic Rail Gun aboard DDG 1000,"
DefenseTech, April 15, 2015.
14 In discussions of potential Navy shipboard lasers, a high-energy laser is generally considered to be a laser with a
beam power of at least 10 kilowatts (kW).
The Navy has also performed research and development work on a different kind of laser, called the free electron laser
(FEL). In recent years, Navy research and development work on potential shipboard lasers has shifted more to SSLs.
For background information on the FEL, see CRS Report R41526, Navy Shipboard Lasers for Surface, Air, and Missile
Defense: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke.
15 In general, lasers would counter small boats and missiles by heating and burning holes in their skins, and causing
thermal damage to their interiors. Lasers can also be used to "dazzle" (i.e., interfere with) electro-optical sensors on a
boat or missile.

Congressional Research Service

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