The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India announced the successful trial of a Mk-II(A) Laser-Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) system on April 13, 2025. This system can destroy missiles, drones and smaller projectiles with lasers. Currently, only a handful of countries have the DEW system.

The Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) of DRDO has mentioned in a statement that the Mk-II(A) Laser has been installed on a truck-shaped vehicle and the Indian Army would be able to deploy it to battlefields during armed conflicts. According to the CHESS, the weapon could easily destroy multiple drones, surveillance sensors, antennas or radar systems of enemies in seconds. Although the defence research agency has kept the range of 30-kilowatt Mk-II(A) secret, sources close to DRDO have revealed that it could neutralise drones and sensors up to 5km away by inducing catastrophic overheating in seconds.

The Indian researchers have claimed that the biggest advantage of the Mk-II(A) is its cost-effectiveness as the Army would have to spend just USD 2 to shoot laser beams for a few seconds from this system. According to defence analysts, this highly sophisticated weapon would change the definition of air defence system in the coming days. It may be noted that neighbouring Pakistan has been smuggling weapons, as well as drugs, into Kashmir and Punjab Provinces of India through drones for a long time. Now, the Indian Army can use this system to prevent smuggling. In addition, the new laser weapon would be able to burn down swarms of enemy drones during war or border clashes. However, the Ministry of Defence has not confirmed when the Indian Army would deploy this system.

Earlier, the DRDO unveiled its ambitious plan to develop a 300kW DEW system, named Surya, with a 20km range, capable of neutralising drones, missiles and other aerial threats with unmatched precision. The organisation claimed that concentrated energy, such as lasers, microwaves or particle beams, could be directly applied to the enemy drones through the Surya. The DRDO is expected to develop this particular DEW system by the end of 2027 in cooperation with various private organisations.

While the US is trying to develop a 100kW laser weapon, Russia and China have also achieved considerable success in this regard. The laser weapon developed by the Russian defence researchers is called Peresvet which is designed for anti-satellite warfare and air defence, with a reported power output in the hundreds of kilowatts. The system is also reportedly capable of blinding enemy satellites. However, the Kremlin has not used Peresvet so far.

Israel stunned the world by releasing a video of a High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS), called Iron Beam, in November 2024. It is basically a powerful laser that fires beams of light to neutralise incoming projectiles, offering a potentially more cost-effective and rapid response than traditional interceptor missiles. Tel Aviv has claimed that the 100kW directed-energy weapon is designed to intercept, as well as destroy, various aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, drones and cruise missiles, from a distance of 7km. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) would soon deploy Iron Beam on various fronts.

In March 2025, Epirus Inc., a California-based US company, unveiled its Leonidas system, a High-Power Microwave (HPM) weapon designed to neutralise drone swarms. This system is designed to disrupt the electronics of drones, effectively disabling them. It may be noted that Leonidas I was the King of Sparta, the Ancient Greek city-state.

However, there are also some challenges in using such directed-energy weapons. A huge amount of electricity would be required to keep this weapon running continuously. Else, it would not be possible to create high-energy lasers or microwaves. If the enemy blows up the power plants at the beginning of the war, then such weapons will become somewhat useless. In spite of these issues, the success of the DRDO has put India in the exclusive and limited club of nations which are possessing the high-power Laser-DEW system.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das