Laser weapon

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has successfully field tested an airborne High-Power Laser Weapon System. The solid-state laser weapon intercepted a number of drones at different altitudes and ranges at a testing field in the center of Israel.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) and Boeing have entered into a partnership to develop a scalable 100 kW to 250 kW-class High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system for air and missile defenses.

The US Navy has successfully carried out a demonstration of a high-energy laser weapon installed in a warship. On May 16, the USS Portland disabled a UAV with its Solid-State Laser - Technology Maturation Laser Weapon System Demonstrator MK 2 MOD 0.

In the past couple of years, both bomb-carrying balloons and brush fire-causing flaming kites have been launched from Gaza into neighboring Israel. A new system uses lasers to shoot them down, and it could even be used to neutralize drones.

The US Navy has successfully installed its first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) laser weapon aboard one of its warships. During dry-dock operations, the destroyer USS Dewey received the stand-alone laser system designed to blind drone sensors.

Lockheed Martin's Advanced Test High Energy Asset (ATHENA) laser weapon, which is being developed for the US Air Force, engaged and destroyed multiple drone threats in a recent field test at a US government test range at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

The US Air Force has taken delivery of its first high-energy laser for shooting down Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Built by Raytheon, it will be used in overseas deployments as part of a year-long experiment.

The UK's Ministry of Defence has ordered three laser and radio-frequency weapons demonstrators. It promises £130 million (US$162 million) to test and evaluate the next generation of Directed Energy Weapons with field trials expected to begin in 2023 on Royal Navy ships and British Army vehicles.

The US Marine Corps wants a new vehicle-mobile laser weapon system that is not only non-lethal to disorient and cause pain without injury, but can yell at people as far away as 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The US Army is moving forward with a new 100-kW laser weapon, awarding US$10 million to Lockheed Martin and Dynetics to continue development of the High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator, the latest in the effort to produce incrementally more powerful and accurate directed energy weapons.

China says that it has developed a laser rifle that can "carbonize" human flesh at a range of 800 m (2,625 ft), yet weighs only 3 kg (6.6 lb) and can burn hair, skins, and signs, and even penetrate and set fire to fuel tanks.

When the first laser was invented, the idea of using it as a superweapon seemed like science fiction. Prototypes have been built, but the revolutionary destructive ray that would change the face of battle as fundamentally as the longbow or the airplane has yet to appear. Why? Let's find out.