How Is The Actual Combat Of Laser Weapons in The End?

Recently the world is not peaceful, regional conflicts continue, the Ukraine crisis lasted close to two years, still have not seen the end of the signs; the Middle East, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict clouds, Yemeni Houthi forces in the Red Sea attacked the cargo ships, and the U.S. military between the air strikes and counter-air strikes confrontation intense.
Compared to some of the large-scale wars of earlier years, these recent regional conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe have some special battlefield commonalities:
- The widespread use of drones, their low cost and good penetration capabilities have made them a versatile weapon of long-range destruction;
- All sides favor lightweight weapons and rely on trenches, fortifications, and tunnels to protect soldiers;
- Information warfare is characterized by unprecedented transparency of information on all parties involved in the war, and even the general public can understand the battlefield pattern due to the development of the media industry.
Soldiers come to block, water to cover the earth. In response to such battlefield characteristics, laser weapons have also repeatedly appeared on stage to play their own contribution. Theoretically speaking, in the battlefield information exposed to the satellite today, the pervasive penetration of drones on the fortifications of the effect of killing and injuring personnel is very superior, and laser weapons are extremely suitable for countermeasures against drones. But this is only from an idealized view, for the average person, instead of going to see all sides say a lot of weapons parameters, it is better to directly look at the laser weapons in the conflict scene in the end is good or not:
On October 7, 2023, without warning, Hamas launched an intense barrage of rocket strikes into Israeli-controlled areas. Soon after, a video circulated on the Internet showing Hamas rockets being intercepted by the Israeli "Iron Beam" laser interception system. "The Iron Beam laser interception system, developed by the Defense Research and Development Agency (DRDA) of Israel's Ministry of Defense and the Defense Industries Corporation (DIC), destroys any target in the air, including rockets, mortar shells, and drones, by firing a high-energy laser beam. As the launch cost is extremely low (each launch cost only a few dollars), can be used as the original "Iron Dome" missile defense system to supplement.
Israel intercepts Hamas rocket
In the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, Chinese-made laser weapons have also achieved excellent results. Saudi Arabia 2022 procurement of "Silent Hunter" laser cannon has successfully shot down 13 Yemeni Houthi armed drones, becoming the world's first laser air defense weapon war case. "Silent Hunter" is a low-altitude laser air defense system sold by China Poly Technology Co., Ltd. and independently developed by China, which is mainly used for tracking and hunting low-altitude targets.
It can be seen that the core advantage of laser weapons in regional conflicts against drones is the cost. Before the Saudis adopted the "Patriot" defense system used to defend missiles can be used to combat a few hundred dollars a drone seems to be a bit "cannon bombing mosquitoes". And the cost of a single laser weapon is almost negligible to deal with drones is exactly the right thing to do. At the same time, the laser to the speed of light for transmission, almost can be found that hit, will not be interfered with. And laser weapons switch targets quickly, without having to consider the problem of ammunition storage and transportation, as long as there is enough energy can be high-frequency continuous fire, suitable for dealing with clusters of targets.
However, on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, in response to the UAV attacks, the Russian laser weapon's effect is not satisfactory.2022 In May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Borisov announced that Russia had deployed a new generation of laser weapons called "Provocateur" on the battlefield. The laser weapon was designed to be used exclusively against drones and had high hopes for its lethality. Unfortunately, it has not achieved the desired lethality. Frankly speaking, on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, we did not see many videos of laser weapons successfully hunting drones, but instead saw many videos of drones on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield successfully guiding man-portable anti-tank weapons, or even directly killing living targets. This may indicate that there are still some limitations to the effectiveness of laser weapon interception.
In a similar vein, also suffering from Houthi drones, the laser weapons that U.S. ships have been claiming to be equipped with have not been unveiled.
The U.S. Navy had previously publicized the Lockheed Martin "Sun God" laser system, the system's maximum power of 60 kilowatts, the main object of combat also happens to be drones, but in the Middle East in a new round of conflict, the face of the Houthis, equipped with laser weapons of the U.S. warships did not appear. Multinational naval forces still rely on traditional anti-aircraft missiles and shipborne fighter jets to intercept missiles and drones launched by the Houthis against merchant ships. This raises some questions.
Conceptual diagram of the U.S. military using laser weapons to intercept drones
In mid-January of this year, Rear Admiral Fred Pyle of the U.S. Navy, who is responsible for overseeing weapons research and development, also said that there are many idealized elements of laser weapons on ships, and that "too much has been promised and not enough has been implemented." He believes that putting laser guns on ships "is still very difficult to see".
During World War II, British Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris once remarked, "Nazis have always gone into war under the naive illusion that they alone can bomb others without being bombed by them." Spear and shield attack and defense confrontation is a permanent topic of war, there is no doubt that the future of drones will not be a sitting duck in front of the laser weapons, drones themselves can even be equipped with cheap laser weapons, countermeasures against the other side of the air defense system, when the competition of war technology will be more intense.
It is not difficult to see, laser weapons have certain characteristics, especially in the countermeasures drone has its own advantages, however, laser weapons in the hands of the Russian army and the U.S. army successively worse than expected, but also exposed its high technical requirements, the effect is too idealized characteristics. For different battlefield patterns, the choice of weapons should also be a variety of laser weapons defense is by no means a panacea for any battlefield environment, it is too early to say that laser weapons can replace traditional anti-missile missiles in air defense operations.