Some of the Navy's futuristic weapons sound like something out of "Star Wars," with lasers designed to shoot down aerial drones and electric guns that fire projectiles² at hypersonic speeds.

 

That future is now.

 

The Navy plans to deploy³ its first laser on a ship later this year, and it intends to test an electromagnetic rail gun prototype aboard a vessel⁴ within two years.

 

For the Navy, it's not so much about the whiz-bang technology as it is about the economics of such armaments（军备，武器）. Both costs pennies on the dollar compared with missiles and smart bombs, and the weapons can be fired continuously, unlike missiles and bombs, which eventually run out.

 

"It fundamentally changes the way we fight," said Capt. Mike Ziv, program manager for directed energy and electric weapon systems for the Naval⁵ Sea Systems Command.

 

The Navy's laser technology has evolved to the point that a prototype to be deployed⁶ aboard the USS Ponce this summer can be operated by a single sailor, he said.

 

The solid-state Laser Weapon System is designed to target what the Navy describes as "asymmetrical⁷ threats." Those include aerial drones, speed boats and swarm⁸ boats, all potential threats to warships⁹ in the Persian Gulf¹⁰, where the Ponce, a floating staging base, is set to be deployed.

 

Rail guns, which have been tested on land in Virginia, fire a projectile¹ at six or seven times the speed of sound -- enough velocity¹¹ to cause severe damage. The Navy sees them as replacing or supplementing old-school guns, firing lethal¹² projectiles（落弹数） from long distances.

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