Die heißeste neue Verteidigung gegen Drohnen? Laser – billiger als fortgeschrittene Luftverteidigungen und vielseitiger als Low -Tech -Optionen. Laser sind zu einer beliebten Wahl für Nationen geworden, die sich Sorgen um Drohnenangriffe machen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/world/europe/drones-laser-weapons.html
4 Kommentare
From the article
Drone swarms that have deluged Ukraine for years — and crossed the border into Poland last week — have sent NATO militaries in Europe rushing to upgrade air defenses in case they ever face a similar threat.
Soon they will have a new solution: lasers.
Scientists have for decades sought to harness directed energy beams into weapon systems that would be cheaper and more efficient than missiles or rockets. A [growing](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advanced-future-military-laser-achieves-uk-first) %5Bnumber%5D(https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/news-watch/news/2023/9/2023-09-22-laser-weapon-trials-at-sea) of %5Bcountries%5D(https://www.militarydrones.org.cn/silent-uunter-anti-drone-laser-weapon-developed-p00193p1.html) are %5Bdeveloping%5D(https://voennoedelo.com/en/posts/id235-russia-tests-new-laser-weapon-to-destroy-drones-in-seconds) or %5Bdeploying%5D(https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46925) their own laser air defenses, and some have already been used in war, by [Israel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfN-_htA4sY) and %5BUkraine%5D(https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-using-laser-weapons/).
A NATO nation in Europe is now buying an air defense laser from an Australian company, which officials, experts and industry executives said appears to be the highest-power direct energy system to be sold on the global weapons market. That is a sign that they are becoming more widely available and could be a mainstay for future warfare.
The Australian laser’s maker, Electro Optic Systems, advertises it as able to shoot down 20 drones a minute, at a cost of less than 10 cents per shot. Nicknamed “Apollo” for the Greek god of light, it has about the same level of power as Israel’s [highly anticipated Iron Beam](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/world/middleeast/israel-laser-rockets.html) air defense laser, which is being built for its own military.
Really, I will never understand the fetishization of laser weapons. All of them are short range, mostly equivalent to heavy machine guns, so you would need a lot of them to cover a meaningful area (like a front line). And don’t be fooled by the „per shot cost“, that is calculated solely based on the cost of energy generation.
The cost of the system is high ($83 million) and I can imagine that the cost of maintenance under anything resembling combat conditions would be high as well. Even at a $1,000 per drone the breakeven point is 83,000 drones. Can this system survive long enough to shoot down 100,000+ drones? I don’t think so.
This war has really sucked for the Ukrainians, but Amazon is going to have to rethink ‚drone delivery‘ when it’s done. Been about 16 „How to take drones out of the sky“ upgrades for like 23 bucks at the local hardware store since it started *checks watch* 3 days ago? It’s a Three day war…but it’s not over yet…uh…yeah. Third day? Second? For like the hundred and thirtieth time. #Girlmath
I am 100% convinced that the only counter to drone swarms is your own drone swarm.
A drone with some cheap explosives on it is guaranteed to cost a similar amount as enemy drone with explosives on it.
The problem to solve there is sufficiently reliable friend or foe identification.