It appears a new age of military weaponry is upon us, as a US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon.
Sharing a video of the demonstration on Friday, the Navy's Pacific Fleet revealed that the weapon successfully destroyed an aircraft mid-flight.
Watch the impressive display below:Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said.
The video and photographs show a laser emanating from the deck of the warship, followed by shots of what appears to be the aeiral drone burning.
The exact location of the laser weapons system demonstrator (LWSD) test was not divulged by the Navy, but they did reveal that the test was carried out in the Pacific on May 16.
Captain Karrey Sanders, commanding officer of Portland, said in the statement:
"By conducting advanced at sea tests against UAVs and small crafts, we will gain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats.
"With this new advanced capability, we are redefining war at sea for the Navy."
Per CNN, the power of the weapon is yet to be disclosed, but a 2018 report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies said it that it was expected to be a 150-kilowatt laser.
In a statement from the US Navy, it is believed that the lasers - which is calls directed energy weapons (DEW) - will be an effective defense against drones or armed small boats. The statement read:
"The Navy's development of DEWs like the LWSD provide immediate warfighter benefits and provide the commander increased decision space and response options."
Back in 2017, Lt. Cale Hughes, a laser weapons system officer, explained to CNN how DEWs work.
"It is throwing massive amounts of photons at an incoming object," Hughes said. "We don't worry about wind, we don't worry about range, we don't worry about anything else. We're able to engage the targets at the speed of light."