The USS Ponce (LPD-15/AFSBI-15) the last ship standing of the 1960s era Austin-class amphibious transport docks, has been floating quietly in the Persian Gulf since 2012 as an “Afloat Forward Staging Base, Interim (AFSB-I) with a hybrid civilian (MSC) and Navy crew after she had been selected for decommissioning and began deactivation. Now supporting a fleet of Sea Dragon mine-sweeping choppers, random patrol boat crews (most of the Navy’s operational 170-foot Cyclone class PCs are in the Gulf as well as a few Coast Guard 110′s), and unnamed special ops characters, the elderly vessel also officially has an active laser weapon.
As confirmed by Bloomberg, USS Ponce has been patrolling with a prototype 30-kilowatt-class Laser Weapon System since late August .
The laser can be adjusted to fire anywhere from a non-lethal dazzling flash at an incoming vessel so they know it’s there or be turned up “all the way to lethal.”
The laser’s range is classified.
