In May, the firm knocked out a number of UAVs at the US Navy test range on San Nicolas Island off the coast of California.
Although Raytheon would not give details of the height, speed and range of the UAVs, saying that data “sensitive”, it did say that the Navy wanted tests to be as realistic as possible, suggesting that the aircraft were behaving in the way military planners would expect them to.
“This is the first time a UAV threat has been targeted and neutralised in a marine environment,” said Mr Booen
“On a ship, the laser can be mounted inside a ship and the beam fed up through fibre cables.
“It was a bad day for UAVs and a good one for laser technology,” he added.
The firm is also working on a sister land based system that can be used to target mortar and rocket rounds.
“On land, it could be mounted in trailers so it has applications across the globe,” said Mr Booen.
Mr Felstead agreed, saying it could have “great capability” as a last line of defence in many situations.
“There are numerous real world applications for a laser than can knock out airborne threats, especially mortars and rockets.
“Airbases in Afghanistan, the Green Zone in Baghdad or the border with Gaza and Israel could all potentially use something like this.
“We’re still some way off being able to take out an [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile] missile with laser technology, but we’re on the path to that,” he added.