Russia has a "new shield" to deal with Ukraine's "sharp sword"
According to a report on the website of the Russian newspaper "Perspectives" on August 27th, Russia has successfully tested a laser weapon on a training ground. It is worth noting that it can hit fixed wing drones and rotary wing drones.
The Opinion Daily quoted a Russian news agency source as saying that this equipment "demonstrates the effectiveness of killing drones at close range.". By burning through the aerodynamic surface or burning down the fuselage and onboard equipment, lasers achieve physical elimination of drones. Meanwhile, the eliminated models include both fixed wing and rotor wing drones.
The Russian expert community has given positive feedback on the testing of this new technology. Alexei Vasilyev, author of the "Telegraph" platform's "Russian Engineer" channel, pointed out that "in the future, laser equipment will become a supplement to electronic warfare and electronic reconnaissance systems." In his view, this forms a three in one defense system - detecting threats, initiating interference, and if interference is ineffective, using lasers to deal with targets.
Vasiliev believed that "rapid fire anti-aircraft guns will become one of the collective defense weapons, forming a hierarchical system of 'micro air defense' and becoming a 'strong shield' against the new 'sword' of drones."
Russian military expert Yuri Knutov believes that using laser equipment to strengthen air defense has great prospects. He said, "This technology has many advantages: it is relatively inexpensive, can respond quickly to enemy threats, and does not make a lot of noise when acting on targets."
He also emphasized, "We are still in the early stages of developing the true potential of laser weapons. So far, such equipment can be classified as short-range air defense weapons. Various prototype devices have relatively short effective distances to destroy targets, similar to high-power electromagnetic weapons. Therefore, to make lasers an important component of air defense, two problems must be solved. One is to increase beam power. In addition, high-quality cooling systems are also needed."