USS Preble to be the first destroyer equipped with HELIOS laser defense system

Lasers are coming along pretty quickly.

The Pearl Harbor-based USS Preble will be the first destroyer to be equipped with a high-energy laser to counter surface craft and unmanned aerial systems, according to a published report, with the Navy planning to one day use the powerful light beams to defend against Chinese or Russian cruise missiles. Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, told Defense News that the Preble will be outfitted in 2021 with the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical- dazzler With Surveillance system, or HELIOS.


“We are making the decision to put the laser on our (destroyers),” Boxall said. “It’s going to start with Preble in 2021, and when we do that, that will now be her close-in weapon that we now continue to upgrade,” according to Defense News.


The Phalanx close-in weapon system is used now to defend against airborne threats by spitting out a stream of projectiles from its automated 20 mm Gatling gun.


The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $150 million contract in 2018, with options worth up to $943 million, for the development of two high-power laser systems for testing on a destroyer and on land.


With the HELIOS system, Lockheed Martin said it will “help the Navy take a major step forward in its goal to field a laser weapon system aboard surface ships.”




The Congressional Research Service said in a May report that the Navy is developing three new ship-based weapons: solid-state lasers, an electromagnetic railgun and a gun-launched guided projectile that “could substantially improve” the ability of Navy surface ships to defend against surface craft, unmanned aerial vehicles and, eventually, anti-ship cruise missiles.


“Any one of these new weapons, if successfully developed and deployed, might be regarded as a ‘game changer’ for defending Navy surface ships” against enemy missiles, the report states.