Defense contractor Boeing signed a contract with the U.S. Navy to develop a high precision laser weapon that will be outfitted to warships in the future. This new project continues the Navy's laser weapon development.

Boeing announced in February it had signed a contract with the Navy worth $29.5 million to design a high precision system for the Navy's increasing number of projected laser weapons, according to a press release.

Called the High Power Beam Control Subsystem (HP BCSS), the new software will help provide all the Navy's upcoming laser weapons with better accuracy and will be compatible with High Energy Lasers (HEL) based on solid-state laser (SSL) technology.

Firing lasers from ships at sea can be complicated, as maritime conditions do not provide stable platforms for accurate fire. The software Boeing will develop will incorporate information obtained from the company's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), which it worked on with the U.S. Army. The HEL MD successfully hit targets in various weather conditions, including strong wind and fog.

"Boeing innovations in beam control and directed energy technologies are keys to understanding laser weapon system configurations that could yield a capability for the Navy in their maritime environment," said Peggy Morse, vice president, Boeing Directed Energy & Strategic Systems (DESS).

The project is part of the Office of Naval Research's Solid State Laser Technology Maturation Program started in 2012. The program "will develop and mature high energy laser technologies into a prototypical weapon system for use and installation on the Navy's surface combatants."

The Navy began successfully testing the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) last year aboard the USS Ponce. Boeing could use the information obtained during these trials to develop its software, assessing the shortcomings of the current software.

Laser weapons continue to be a focus for the Navy because of their many benefits. The Congressional Research Service released a report listing many of the advantages of laser weapons, including cheaper cost of operation, almost infinite available shots, less collateral damage, and the ability to follow a target.

However, it listed some of its shortcomings as well. Among these is laser's inability to operate efficiently in certain weather conditions as well as pollution from the surrounding environment such as sand, salt particles, or smoke, which could affect range.

Boeing could be working to perfect the weapons system, allowing the laser to compensate in other ways.