no doubt satis wants one for his carrier

*put on armchair admiral cap*

isn't this just money spunked away? according to wikipedia it's meant for drones and small approaching vessels, but wouldn't a phalanx work fine in that regard? of course i know shit about the operating costs of a phalanx or this.

Its all about 'time to target'. That shit is nearly instantaneous. Its probably a decade away from being of good enough but they'll get there eventually.

While I obviously enjoy explosions and lazors for their own sake, what is the exact advantage of these (other than small-moving targets like drones)? That they can so to speak eliminate a particular weapon or explosive without necessarily blowing up the whole vessel?

Well for one a it is always good to carry less explosives and projectiles on-board. Because if something does get through the air defense, that stuff becomes even more deadly than enemy fire.

The primary advantages are it's cheap and you don't run out of ammo, ever. The fact it moves at the speed of light and isn't affected by gravity (much) is probably also a bonus.

A few things to note are that the weapon system cost a total of $40million dollars to develop, and it's now deployed. That's nothing for a weapons system. Also, each time it shoots is projected to cost 59 cents. Compare that to several hundred thousand dollars (at least) per modern missile. Laser weapons are an absolute game changer. Mount a battle ship with some laser weapons for anti-air and anti-ship defense and a rail gun for blowing shit up over the horizon and you'd have one hell of an inexpensive and powerful weapons system.

source:

Is that all part of the current austerity trends?

Sounds nifty though!