It's worth bearing in mind that lasers are still only one tool with its own set of limitations in an entire toolbox. The thing about lasers is that it's impossible to intercept and always dumps 100% of its energy into a traget, unlike kinetic impact weapons that may be affected by overpenetration and angle of impact. Against relatively fragile and fast targets (drones, smaller aircraft, missiles etc.) this is ideal, as you don't have to worry about things like leading your shot or overpenetration causing little damage beyond a small hole. On the downside, this makes current lasers ineffective against any meaningful armour or cover in combat relevant timeframes. The same trait that makes lasers desirable for their current niche also hinders it in some others. At the end of the day, until technology in power sources advances sufficiently we're unlikely to see much laser usage in ground combat.
chinese laser weapon development
- Thread starter maozedong
- Start date
There is also cooling, beam aperture, vibration compensation, etc.
Plaque at the recent UAE defence expo proves what we've known for a year: the system is combat proven.
Is PLA actually equipped with any meaningful numbers of laser weapons or is it mostly for export?
It is confirmed to be in service with PLAAF air defense division last Zhuhai Airshow. How many of them are there? Who knows.
I would see them in Ukraine big time against drones... zapping them would burn CMOS at first glance.
Unofficial badge made by Weapon Magazine commemorating the shootdown.
Video introducing 10KW anti-uav laser. Seems to use the same turret as the one we've seen in UAE.
Seems like a very large vehicle for only 10kW of power no? Raytheon has a 10/15kW laser mounted on a Polaris side-by-side. The Stryker mounted one is 50kW and the truck mounted (not sure model) from Lockheed is 300kW.