India now has a 'Star Wars'-like weapon. DRDO's DEW laser weapon can shoot down drones, UAVs mid-air

India has joined the league of select few nations—the US, China and Russia—that have the capability to bring down hostile drones, unmanned aircraft and other projectiles, with the successful trial of a laser-directed energy weapon system.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in a social media post, said the weapon system was tested at Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh.

CHESS (Centre for High Energy Systems & Sciences), DRDO, conducted a successful field demonstration of the land version of vehicle-mounted laser-directed weapon (DEW) MK-II(A) at Kurnool, it said.

The weapon destroyed the fixed-wing UAV and swarm drones successfully, causing structural damage and disabling the surveillance sensors.

"With this successful trial, country has joined the exclusive club of the Global powers who possess the high-power Laser DEW System," the DRDO added.

ALSO READ: India's ‘Gaurav’ glide bomb shows deadly precision in long-range strike trial from Su-30 MKI

CHESS director Jagannath Nayak said this is a massless weapon and the concentration of laser light falls on the target and neutralises it.

Calling this a "great success," Nayak said, "...we have seen that we have neutralised fixed-wing aircraft at long range and then we have also seen that we have neutralised swarm drone... with the laser weapon, we can neutralise multiple targets."

“Israel is also working on similar capabilities, I would say we are the fourth or fifth country in the world to demonstrate this system,” DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat said.

Kamat said the DRDO is also working on other weapon systems like high-energy microwaves, and electromagnetic pulse. "So we are working on a number of technologies that will give us Star Wars capability. What you saw today was one of the components of Star Wars technologies."

According to B.K. Das, Director General (Electronics & Communication System) DRDO, this is the first time India is showing a technology in use and its devastation. "This shows how far we are going in our technology maturity... What you saw is a completely indigenous product of many DRDO laboratories working in synergy with startups, academic institutions and industries. We are confident that we are going to reach high power very soon."

He further said the plan is underway to deploy similar systems with slight modifications on ships.

The Centre has been focusing on the development of the directed energy weapons (DEWs) and hypersonic weapons in an attempt to boost the country's defence prowess. The Indian Air Force is already working towards integrating these weapon systems into airborne platforms.

Defence