I’ve been reading about how, in both Ukraine and the Middle East, $4M Patriot missiles are being used to shoot down $20k Russian and Iranian Shahed drones. The Patriots work fine, with an average 90% intercept rate, but the cost ratio presents an unsustainable tactic. It made me wonder if there was any progress on deploying laser weaponry against drones, where the cost per shot could be as low as $10. Turns out there’s been a lot of progress on laser weaponry. I’ll bring you up to date.
The photo above shows the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS), a ship-mounted laser, firing at a test target. The beam is visible because of haze and sea spray at the low targeting angle. Of course, the beam works best when passing through clear dry air. If you can see the beam, energy is being scattered.
This video shows the Lockheed Martin Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) prototype laser weapon. The rocket is propelled along a guide wire at a range of 1.6 kilometers. Acquisition, tracking, and destruction of the target took approximately three seconds. Note how accurately the beam tracks and heats the same spot on the fast-moving rocket, and how the beam itself is invisible:
Several nations are developing laser weaponry. Here are five notable programs as of 2025, as reported by Interesting Engineering. Some have already been deployed, others are still in R&D:
- The US Navy’s 400 kW SONGBOW laser weapon uses several 50 kW industrial laser units to create a single powerful beam that can kill drone swarms, cruise missiles, and other fast-moving threats “from a long distance.” It’s exact range has not been disclosed.
- Australian company Electro Optic Systems (EOS), designed a weapon to counter drone threats called the Apollo “drone killer.” It uses a battery rather than a generator to lower its heat signature. Apollo delivers around 150 kW and can destroy up to 200 drones on a single battery charge.
- Israel has deployed a combat laser called Iron Beam, a ground-based laser that can take down drones, rockets, and mortars in seconds. Integrated with their Iron Dome system, it can intercept threats at a lower cost than missile-based defenses, especially during high-volume attacks.
- UK’s DragonFire has demonstrated formidable capabilities. In one test it shot down drones moving at speeds twice that of a Formula 1 racer. The system is accurate enough to hit a coin-sized target at one kilometer, making it a potential addition to future Royal Navy and Army armament.
- China introduced its LY-1 laser weapon and claims “it performs better than US systems, such as HELIOS.” Deployed on People’s Liberation Army Navy ships, and tested on land, these lasers are part of a broader US–China arms race to field powerful, precise, and low‑cost directed‑energy defenses.
Weapon-grade lasers are scaled up versions of your typical laser pointer. They are solid state lasers which are robust under combat conditions. The lasing medium is a neodymium-doped crystal, usually a cylinder of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) with the composition Y3Al5O12. The lasing medium is excited by LEDs tuned to the exact lasing frequency, rather than the helical white light flash tubes of early lasers. LEDs are also more efficient than flash tubes. Because of their power scalability, YAG lasers have found a range of applications from industrial welding to military weaponry.
These high-power lasers produce beams with diameters of 10–50 cm. They need to be able to track the target, as the beam must focus on the same spot for several seconds to cause damage. The lasers are mounted on a structure that allows them to swivel in all directions. Here’s look at the the US-Israeli Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL). It successfully shot down rockets and artillery shells, but was canceled in 2005 as a result of “its bulkiness, high costs, and poor anticipated reliability on the battlefield.” It’s current successor (SONGBOW) has now been deployed, and shares many of the original design features:
And this is China’s LY-1 laser. Like all laser weapons, they have built-in tracking capabilities to keep the beam applied on fast-moving targets. As with THEL, the large aperture is the actual weapon — the small aperture openings are for tracking:
The range of laser weapons in clear air is around 5-20 km currently. You can’t shoot through smoke or fog or clouds or rain. Even in clear air, the beam experiences scattering and divergence, which loses energy and reduces beam density, ultimately limiting the lethal range. Still, for close-in defense of ships against drones or missiles, it’s pretty effective when set to target and fire autonomously. It can also be used to detonate mines from a safe distance.
Ground vehicles can also be armed with lasers. Several systems are currently under development, with the US Army’s Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) being deployed just last year.
Importantly, laser weapons can be used for more than just burning up targets. They can overload infrared sensors on a heat-seeking projectile, the optical camera on a drone, or a pilot’s eyes. And they can do that from far greater distances than their kill range.
On the downside, targets can be “hardened” by using highly reflective materials for their skin, and also by simply spinning them (as artillery shells automatically do) to spread the heat of the laser beam over a larger area. But you can’t spin a drone or a cruse missile, so with their increased use in modern warfare, I expect to see continued development of laser weaponry. No military technology has reshaped warfare as dramatically in recent years as have drones and cruise missiles. Laser weaponry may well be the next.
Next Week in Sky Lights ⇒ How to Move a Moon Rocket