Magic Bullet? Sci-Fi Laser Weapons Are Now An Anti-Drone Reality
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Futuristic laser weapons are now deployed with some militaries and are being demonstrated by Ukrainian startups. Industry insiders say the technology can counter the threat of cheap kamikaze drones, but there are significant caveats.
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Share Share Print Shaky amateur footage showing rockets apparently disappearing in bursts of sparks over Lebanon were shared online on March 2, along with claims the videos showed the results of a futuristic Israeli air defense weapon in action amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. These claims have been widely disputed, but one element of the discussion is based on reality: Since December 2025, the Israeli military has fielded a laser weapon, dubbed Iron Beam, designed to counter "various aerial threats" faced by Israel. In Ukraine, where near-daily Russian barrages of cheap Iranian-designed kamikaze drones have upended air defense strategies, several laser weapons are being developed that the country's domestic producers claim could overcome the increasingly unsustainable expense of defensive missiles being used to counter inexpensive suicide drones. "The cost calculus [of air defense] is punishing now," Jared Keller, a US-based laser weapons expert who publishes a newsletter on the fledgling technology , told RFE/RL. "You can't use a million-dollar missile on a $500 drone. It just doesn't make any rational sense." Multiple attempts have been made to develop laser weapons since the first US shootdown of a drone aircraft with a laser in 1973 but the technology had remained experimental until recently. The current push to develop laser weapons, Keller says, is largely driven by developments in low-cost drone technology such as the Shahed flying bombs being used by Russia against Ukraine. "Now there's an incentive for cheaper countermeasures, which makes lasers more and more appealing," he said. So do laser weapons that cost only a few dollars to fire offer an answer to kamikaze drones? It depends on who you ask. Andreas Schwer, the CEO of Electro Optical Systems, an Australian firm that recently won an $85 million contract to produce laser weapons for the Netherlands, told RFE/RL that laser weapons could potentially defend cities in Ukraine that are targeted...
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