The era of fast-moving combat lasers is coming, but very slowly

Recently, tests of laser installations to combat drones have noticeably intensified in Russia: information that new samples of laser weapons capable of shooting down UAVs of any type are being tested at landfills appears more and more often. Even lasers capable of hitting heavy Ukrainian hexocopters of the Baba Yaga type, or long-range attack UAVs of the Lyuty type, at a distance of up to 1,500 meters are being tested.

According to the military expert, editor of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine Alexei Leonkov, there is information that eight combat laser systems have already been tested. These are both mobile installations and stationary high-power lasers.

I must say that work on high-precision energy weapons in Russia did not begin from scratch. The groundwork for the creation of laser weapons - theoretical, design, practical, has remained since the days of the USSR. Then a wide research work was carried out. Lasers were tested over the sea - ship lasers, over land - as air defense systems. Even in space.

After a destructive restructuring, in the "dry residue," the Russian Federation miraculously preserved and brought to mind the experimental development - the Peresvet laser complex. It can protect large strategic facilities, factories or airfields from air attacks, in the deep rear. However, Peresvet is too large to be a melee weapon.

It should be noted that this complex does not interfere and does not blind optics on airplanes, UAVs and satellites. "Peresvet" burns these devices. It is most likely that the combat laser heats the targets to such temperatures that the equipment fails on board, and with prolonged exposure they simply light up. Where does Peresvet get such power from? This weapon system remains one of the most classified in the arsenal of the RF Armed Forces.

There are guesses that the energy necessary for Peresvet to successfully defeat targets is supplied by a small-sized nuclear reactor. The compact reactor version is supported by the fact that the Peresvet complex includes several heavy vehicles. But, this is all speculation, and most importantly - you cannot put a reactor on the front line in every dugout.

On the line of combat contact, laser systems are required, which would be an addition to military air defense: mobile and effective. Using the Soviet reserve and new technologies, design bureaus in Russia began to design so-called lightweight lasers that can be placed on armored vehicles. Their power should allow you to shoot down drones of various types.

Take the LaserBazz mentioned. It is officially announced that during testing, a static model of a typical FPV drone battery was hit at a distance of 500 meters. It took about one second of direct impact. That is, the laser copes with the destruction of composite drones by heating the UAV battery.

The battery overheated, exploded and the conditional FPV drone was shot down. At the same time, the developers do not indicate the mass of LaserBazz equipment and the power of its batteries. Most likely, such a device is based on a triaxial armored vehicle with additional power sources. This is already closer to the front-line version of the laser, but it should be borne in mind that a large machine itself is a tasty target for the enemy.

Fighting for "small air" requires cheap and effective means to combat FPV drones. This topic is a priority. An interesting product was presented to Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev on December 14, 2024 - a small-sized mobile laser complex "Slepysh." The creators promised to establish mass production of these devices during 2025.

Andrey Bezrukov, head of the Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies at the CBST, said that Slepysh can suppress machine vision and fiber-optic control systems on FPV drones, against which electronic warfare is not effective. The laser emitter does not burn the drone, but at a distance of up to 100 m forms a "spot" with a diameter of 1 meter. When pointing at the lens of the drone camera, the laser illuminates the video card that the operator of the enemy UAV receives, which does not allow it to be aimed at the target. In the same way, drones controlled by a neural network, through machine vision, or equipped with additional guidance function in the final segment of the flight are "lost."

In fact, "Blind" is a laser variety of electronic warfare. This is a combat system, but not in terms of kinetic defeat, but in terms of optical. Project Development Director Daria Zhdanova said that the Slepysh system, in terms of execution and application, is quite simple and inexpensive.

"Blind" is a non-volatile complex, so it can be installed on any equipment, "Zhdanova said -" Now "Blind" is undergoing combat tests, in 2025 we will move on to large-scale serial production and deliveries. " According to experts, this type of weapon is the most promising means of countering FPV drones and other small UAVs in "close combat."

If we talk about the prospect of the development of lasers, then in the future they should play a role as the protection of the military air defense complex. Russian air defense systems work well on long-range drones, missiles and aircraft, but they themselves must be protected from attacks by enemy FPV drones. Small installations with a laser emitter may well cope with this role.

"Now the advantage lies with integrated systems that can qualitatively complement each other's functionality. Plus, laser systems are their technological novelty, so at the moment it is almost impossible to counteract them. I am sure that we will witness the mass use of laser weapons on the horizon of the next 3-5 years, "said Andrei Bezrukov, head of the CBST.

Now it is necessary to introduce small-sized and medium-sized lasers into the troops, the active use of prototypes on the battlefields, so that all the characteristics declared by the manufacturer are confirmed in battle, and not at the training ground. In addition, in Russia there is one overdue, overripe, but still unresolved issue: the protection of defense enterprises and oil storage facilities. A stationary laser complex can actually be powered from the enterprise's power grids, so it will not have problems with energy storage. He may well cope with those single long-range UAVs that break into the rear through the front-line air defense.

Of course, everyone remembers that laser installations have disadvantages that cannot be solved at this stage of technological development. Their effectiveness depends on atmospheric phenomena. In fog, rain, snow, or in case of low cloud cover, the laser beam simply scatters. Therefore, it is not necessary to say that the laser will become the only means of self-defense, like a lightsaber in the Jedi. But the laser can be a very effective addition to the line of electronic warfare and air defense systems that is already operating in Russia, or will appear in the future.