South Korea has commenced an effort to shoot drones out of the sky using lasers – and has named it the “Star Wars project”.
The project was announced on Thursday by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), and apparently represents the first time a nation’s military will deploy such laser-powered anti-aircraft weapons.
“This laser anti-aircraft weapon is a new concept future weapon system that neutralizes targets by directly irradiating them with a light source laser generated from an optical fiber, and can precisely strike small unmanned aerial vehicles and multi-copters at close range,” explained DAPA.
The agency added that the lasers are invisible, silent, and require no ammunition to operate – other than electricity to power the weapon.
While at present only a prototype exists, the defense agency has signed a contract with that unit’s manufacturer, Hanwha Aerospace Co., to bring the tech into mass production.
DAPA published only a grainy image of the weapon, depicting it as located in a chunky little building.
South Korea’s laser weapon looks vulnerable to Ewok attack – Click to enlarge
Delivery to the military is scheduled to start this year. According to DAPA’s guided weapons division head, Lee Dong-seok, it will strengthen the nation’s military response to North Korea’s future “drone provocations.”
Each shot taken by the weapon apparently costs ₩2000 ($1.45) – presumably in energy costs. It is not clear how many zaps are needed to take out a drone. The agency did specify that it achieved a 100 percent success rate in live-fire tests. Do, or do not – there is no try.
The weapon reportedly works by targeting engines or other electric equipment with beams of light fired for 10 to 20 seconds at a time.
While it’s cheap to operate, ₩87.1 billion ($63.2 million) has been invested in building it since development began in 2019.
DAPA said in the future, the weapon could be capable of responding to aircraft and ballistic missiles – it has plans to increase the output of the laser oscillator to make that happen.
North and South Korea both already use drones for surveillance and reconnaissance. The North has also used them provocatively – in the same spirit as its numerous rocket and missile tests that demonstrate its offensive capabilities.
Also offensive is the North’s recent use of balloons laden with garbage, which it has set drifting to land in the South where they have caused considerable annoyance (“What an incredible smell you’ve discovered!”) and disrupted aviation. ®