A Laser Phalanx?

Jane's reports from the British DSEi exhibition that Raytheon is working on a Phalanx variant that can fire lasers. Kevin Peppe, Raytheon's Phalanx program director, said that:

"The Centurion system has provided a near-term C-RAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortars) solution for our deployed forces. But we know that our customers would like a larger defended footprint beyond the kinematics of a gunbased system. A missile is too expensive, so we are looking instead at a solution based on the adaptation of a robust but relatively lowpower, low beam-quality commercial laser…. By using clever optics to focus the laser beam at range, we demonstrated that we could achieve sufficient energy on target to deflagrate a 60mm mortar round."

According to Peppe, such a solution would offer an effective range about 3 times that of the existing M61A1 gun, along with lower life-cycle costs. Even so, more powerful solid-state lasers will probably be required in order to make the concept feasible…