In a first, India entered an exclusive league of countries on Sunday after using a lethal 30-kilowatt laser-based weapon system to neutralise missiles, drone and more. The indigenous Mk-II(A) Laser-Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) system’ successful trial by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at the National Open Air Range (NOAR) in Kurnool showcased its “Star Wars” capabilities.

Thanks to an inbuilt Electro Option (EO) system, the laser weapon system detects targets using radar. As a result, the Sunday test trial saw the futuristic weapon fire a laser beam and destroy a drone after tracking it. The target in question was reportedly a Chinese-origin drone operated by the Pakistan Army.

The homegrown warfare defence solution is powered by the Integrated Drone Detection and Interdiction System built by the DRDO, which has a 2-kilowatt laser beam. Tapping into the game-changing electronic warfare capability, India has now entered the select league of nations — the United States, Russia, China and Israel — that have either already demonstrated it or are working on it.

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DRDO on India’s new laser weapon

“CHESS DRDO conducted a successful field demonstration of the Land version of Vehicle mounted Laser Directed Weapon(DEW) MK-II(A) at Kurnool today. It defeated the fixed wing UAV and Swarm Drones successfully causing structural damage and disabled 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 boasted in a post on X.

Calling it just the “beginning of the journey,” DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat told ANI, “As far as I know, it is the United States, Russia and China that have demonstrated this capability. Israel is also working on similar capabilities, I would say we are the fourth or fifth country in the world to demonstrate this system.”

He added, “The synergy that this lab has achieved with other DRDO labs, industry and academia, I am sure we will reach our destination soon… We are also working on other high energy systems like high energy microwaves, 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.”

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CHESS director on what the Star Wars-esque laser weapon can achieve

Dr Jagannath Nayak, Director of the Centre for High Energy System and Science (CHESS) also beamed when talking about the 30-kilowatt laser weapon system that can potentially destroy threats within a 5 kilometre range and also features capabilities that can jam communication and satellite signals.

“Whatever we have achieved today is a great success, and 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 threats. So, this is one of the new and emerging weapon systems. It is a massless weapon and the concentration of laser light falls on the target and neutralises it. So this is an achievement for our country and DRDO.”