Britische Armee schießt Drohnen mit Laser-Trucks vom Himmel | Hochenergiewaffe beweist im Test ihr Können

From the article: The British Army has successfully destroyed flying drones for the first time using a high-energy laser mounted on an armored vehicle. If perfected, the technology could form an effective counter-measure against drone attacks.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that soldiers from 16 Royal Artillery had conducted tests against flying targets – although the word it used was “hovering” – at the Radnor Range in mid-Wales.

This latest development follows the first firing of the laser weapon from a British Army combat vehicle at a Porton Down firing range, operated by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), earlier this year.

In that instance, the 15-kilowatt infrared laser was found to be capable of “neutralizing” targets at distances greater than 1 km. In both tests, the weapon was mounted on a Wolfhound, a six-wheel armored truck operated by the army as part of its Tactical Support Vehicles (TSV) group.

According to defense contractor Raytheon, which is part of the trials, this was the latest stage of the MoD’s Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) demonstrator program involving its High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS), and soldiers successfully tracked and neutralized – that word again – moving aerial targets.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has demonstrated that tanks are vulnerable against attack from drones, and armed forces around the world are rushing to develop countermeasures. Energy weapons such as lasers are regarded as a reasonable solution as these can continue to fire for as long as there is sufficient power, whereas guns run out of ammunition and missiles are soon used up.

1 km isn’t that impressive of a range. Even tanks can have something like 5 miles of range. I wonder whether range will be a fundamental limitation of laser weapons for a while until they become a realistic option on a battlefield.