Chinese laser weapon development

lcloo · 2026-06-03T10:37:58-0400

Totoro said:
Exactly - against bigger fixed wing drones lasers seem like a better idea. As such drones don't really come in high numbers and are easier to detect from a longer distance. Against FPV drones - these kind of engagement, dwell and retargeting times are simply not very useful.

Of course more powerful lasers will be more effective - but I would expect the distances or dwell times not to scale linearly/inversely with added power, and targeting and retargeting times to remain the same - which suggests even a 50 kw laser might still need like 12-15 seconds for a single fpv drone engagement and retargeting of the next.

Retargeting can be almost instantaneously if the radar of the laser weapon system can detect and track multiple targets, and this multi-target tracking capability is quite common.

The time to swing the laser mounting from one target to another is less than a second to 1 or 2 seconds the most, depending on how spread out the drone swarm is. Also the target lock time and laser fire time is also almost instantaneously.

So it really depends on what radar system is used to guide the laser weapon.

vincent · 2026-06-03T11:34:39-0400

Totoro said:
Exactly - against bigger fixed wing drones lasers seem like a better idea. As such drones don't really come in high numbers and are easier to detect from a longer distance. Against FPV drones - these kind of engagement, dwell and retargeting times are simply not very useful.

Of course more powerful lasers will be more effective - but I would expect the distances or dwell times not to scale linearly/inversely with added power, and targeting and retargeting times to remain the same - which suggests even a 50 kw laser might still need like 12-15 seconds for a single fpv drone engagement and retargeting of the next.

Doesn't need to burn FPVs till they drop from the sky, just need to burn out the cameras.

Totoro · 2026-06-03T12:16:52-0400

Exactly, which is why still find it strange that the promo says 5 seconds of burn time is needed for blinding the drone, at 3 km away. Scaling that up, even a 100 kw system would not have very good performance. 22-15 km range for same energy on target or double the emergy (2.5 seconds time to blind) - but even those are perfect, theoretical ranges. Real world laser issues and atmospheric conditions dont allow such scaling so more realistic ranges might be 15-8 km. For 100 kw laser to blind a small drone camera over 5-2.5 seconds.

siegecrossbow · 2026-06-03T13:09:46-0400

Totoro said:
Exactly, which is why still find it strange that the promo says 5 seconds of burn time is needed for blinding the drone, at 3 km away. Scaling that up, even a 100 kw system would not have very good performance. 22-15 km range for same energy on target or double the emergy (2.5 seconds time to blind) - but even those are perfect, theoretical ranges. Real world laser issues and atmospheric conditions dont allow such scaling so more realistic ranges might be 15-8 km. For 100 kw laser to blind a small drone camera over 5-2.5 seconds.

Probably the stats are conservative. Also, keep in mind that the specs for this system are from the early 2020s. Loads of improvements have been made technologically since then. Some of the often overlooked things like beam stability and targeting have improved leaps and bounds.

doggydogdo · 2026-06-03T14:08:24-0400

Totoro said:
Exactly, which is why still find it strange that the promo says 5 seconds of burn time is needed for blinding the drone, at 3 km away. Scaling that up, even a 100 kw system would not have very good performance. 22-15 km range for same energy on target or double the emergy (2.5 seconds time to blind) - but even those are perfect, theoretical ranges. Real world laser issues and atmospheric conditions dont allow such scaling so more realistic ranges might be 15-8 km. For 100 kw laser to blind a small drone camera over 5-2.5 seconds.

I don't get why that would "not have very good performance". It blinds the small drone long before it reaches the laser and for larger drones with more sensitive cameras it would be even further.

plawolf · 2026-06-03T15:15:15-0400

Totoro said:
Machine tramslation aGain:

System Reaction Time
Time from radar detection to laser pointing on target: > 5 s
Fire Transfer Time
Time from destroying one target to aiming at the next: > 8 s
Operating Angle Range
Azimuth: N × (0°–360°); Elevation: −5° to +80°
Target Engagement Performance
Low-speed targets: at 1.5 km, damage time > 10 s; Electro-optical targets: at 3 km, blinding time > 5 s

Wow those are not good figures against fpv drones. This is not a diss on the particular system but it makes me wonder if lasers are still quite a bit away from being useful in said role.
So basically 5+10+8 seconds for one target??? At 1.5 km away? You wont get a chance to destroy another one.

And blinding is not really better. Still 5 seconds needed at just 3 km away?? Probably another 10+ seconds for retargeting.

I would have expected that a 15 kw laser could blind that simple optic on a quadcopter from longer distances, and faster.

If those figures apply to most lasers, we wont see them in ukraine anytime soon.

I think there might also a lot of civilian safety regulations baked in, especially on the re-engagement speed and targeting limitations, which kinda match footage from Ukraine where the laser locks onto targets tor a good few seconds before engaging, and when engaging, it aims for centre mass.

That all makes perfect sense in a civilian use context as you don’t want to risk zapping civilian bystanders and/or parts of the city with a 20kw laser beam.

Chinese laser weapon development

lcloo

Major

vincent

Grumpy Old Man

Totoro

Major

siegecrossbow

Field Marshall

doggydogdo

Junior Member

plawolf

Lieutenant General