India Shows New Laser Tool To Fight Aerial Threats
DRDO chairman Dr Samir V. Kamat noted that only the US, Russia and China have field-tested comparable systems, with Israel still developing its version
New Delhi: India on Sunday publicly demonstrated its ability to destroy fixed-wing aircraft, missiles and swarm drones with a 30-kilowatt laser ‑ directed energy weapon, placing the country alongside the United States, China and Russia in the small group that has proven such capability.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) fired the indigenously developed Mk‑II(A) Laser-Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) at the National Open Air Range (NOAR) here, disabling multiple aerial targets at the speed of light. The system tracks threats with either an onboard electro-optic sensor or external radar cue and burns through the target’s structure, causing catastrophic failure. Officials called it a low-cost answer to the growing drone threat.
“We neutralised a fixed-wing aircraft at long range and then a swarm of drones,” said Dr Jagannath Nayak, director of DRDO’s Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS). “The laser’s concentrated beam makes it a massless weapon that can engage multiple targets rapidly — an achievement for the country.”
Dr B.K. Das, DRDO’s director-general (Electronics & Communication Systems), said the technology is “completely indigenous,” involving several DRDO labs, startups, academic partners and private industry. “We plan to adapt similar systems for shipborne use and scale to higher power soon,” he added.
DRDO chairman Dr Samir V. Kamat noted that only the US, Russia and China have field-tested comparable systems, with Israel still developing its version. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “Parallel work on high-energy microwaves and electromagnetic-pulse weapons will give us a full ‘Star‑Wars’ suite of capabilities.”
Kamat also reaffirmed DRDO’s commitment to deliver the fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) by 2035.