Kurnool: India joined a select league of nations – including the US, China and Russia – on Sunday by demonstrating a 30-kilowatt laser-based weapons system capable of shooting down fixed-wing aircraft, missiles and swarm drones.
Designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the capabilities of this Directed-Energy Weapons system (DEWs) was demonstrated in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
The system is now ready for production and de
ployment across multiple military platforms.
“This is just the beginning,” Dr Samir V Kamat, chairman, DRDO, told the media as he unveiled plans for more futuristic weapons systems.
“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 stated.
He also revealed that DRDO is working on other high-energy systems.
“We are also working on other high-energy systems like high-energy microwaves, electromagnetic pulse… What you saw today was one of the components of Star Wars technologies…There are many projects moving towards maturity – VSHORAD, MPATGM, LCA Mark II… In the next six months to one year, you will see many of our systems getting inducted,” he said.