It may be difficult to think of a Naval Death Ray laser weapon as useful for anything but taking lives, but the Navy says that it is a multi-purpose tool.
The super powerful laser is a weapon that can shoot down rockets and missiles that may threaten ships.
The Free Electron Laser or FEL is currently being developed by Boeing and will be used for a variety of tasks such as tracking, communications, target designation, disruption, time of flight location and of course to knock out any incoming threats from the sky.
The long term plan is for such lasers to replace guns on Naval ships but this is a long time coming. The program manager at the Office of Naval Research for the Free Electron Laser, Quentin Saulter said that the Navy is looking at multiple uses for the Holy Grail of all lasers.
The $163 million project of the Navy has tasked Boeing with developing a prototype design for the laser for $26 million. The company has completed a preliminary design in March and will deliver it by 2012.