The Navy wants lasers to blow drones out of the sky

The U.S. Navy just awarded Lockheed Martin $150 million to make their wish for drone-blasting lasers a reality. The military branch is becoming increasingly concerned that enemies could use small drones to surveil their ships or even attack them, which is why it wants Lockheed to develop “directed-energy” (aka laser gun) counter-measures, reports Bloomberg. The laser array, called HELIOS (High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance), would track drones that approach ships and either blow them out of the sky or disable any cameras on the drone with its bright “spotlight” effect.