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The Russian Peresvet laser weapon, unlike the new laser, cannot shoot down drones, only blind them
Photo: Russian Defense Ministry
They are among the alleged "miracle weapons" of the Russian army - and now Moscow apparently wants to use them more: A new generation of powerful laser weapons is intended to destroy Ukrainian drones and light aircraft in the future - the Russian military claims.
The country is about to introduce high-power lasers.
"Our physicists have developed laser systems that are many times more powerful, which allows the combustion of various targets, and are building them practically ready for series production," said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov this week at a conference near Moscow.
The new laser weapons were first announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, along with an ICBM, underwater nuclear drones and a supersonic weapon.
They are among the "wonder weapons" announced by Moscow.
At the beginning of the war, Western experts were very concerned that Russia could quickly win the conflict with these weapons.
But the devices have so far been little more than a bluff and hardly relevant to the war.
So what's up with the now announced laser weapons?
Are they really as powerful as the name suggests?
Blind satellites and burn drones
Little is known about exactly what the Russian lasers look like.
When testing the prototype on Tuesday, no pictures were shown, and there were no videos either.
According to the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, the new laser weapon "Zadira" has a range of five kilometers and can shoot down drones at this altitude.
A prototype is said to have burned a drone within five seconds, causing it to crash.
The technique itself is quite simple: a laser emits a beam of infrared light that heats its target until it burns.
However, unlike other anti-aircraft systems, the beam can only focus on one target.
Borissow sees the new laser weapon as a supplement to the "Peresvet" laser weapon, which has been in use for some time.
Although it cannot shoot down drones, it can "blind" enemy satellite and reconnaissance systems and thus put them out of action.
The range of "Pereswet" is therefore 1500 kilometers.
The Ukrainian leadership was deliberately unimpressed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy derisively compared the news of the lasers to the so-called wonder weapons Nazi Germany presented to avoid defeat in World War II.
Russia's technical weakness
In fact, the talk of "wonder weapons" may be more rhetorical war tactics than a real threat.
For example, to cover up your own weaknesses and losses.
Russia's army lags behind other nations when it comes to drone technology.
The USA, Israel and China in particular are regarded as pioneers in unmanned aerial warfare.
Turkey is also successfully exporting Bayraktar combat drones.
From the start, Ukraine relied on cheap drones made in Turkey.
The "Bayraktar TB2" has a wingspan of 12 meters, flies at up to 130 kilometers per hour, can stay in the air for 24 hours and can carry a payload of 55 kilograms.
It is therefore suitable for reconnaissance flights and combat missions.
Drone attacks with the TB2 on Russian units were reported again and again.
It is also strange that there are no pictures or videos of the allegedly successful Russian laser weapon tests.
Other countries are also developing such laser weapons.
The German armaments group Rheinmetall has been in business for years.
The procurement office of the Bundeswehr had already commissioned the production of a laser source demonstrator for a low double-digit million euro amount in 2020.
Last month Israel released a video showing a laser system shooting down missiles and drones.
Exactly what Borisov describes happened there: drones were brought down by a laser, as clearly shown in the Israeli promotional video.
No wonder weapon: Not much more than a better microwave
But even if the Russian army now has such laser weapons, it will not affect the course of the war, said missile defense expert Dr.
Uzi Rubin of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) to the BBC.
"Zelenskyj is right - it's not a silver bullet." According to the expert, there are even better ways of completing such small aircraft, such as surface-to-air missiles.
"It's not like Star Wars, where you point a laser gun at the bad guys, quickly press a button and the bad guy explodes," says Rubin.
In reality, it is more like a simple microwave oven.
“Boiling a cup of water takes time.
It's the same with the laser.
You have to place it on the target and wait for it to heat up and destroy it."
And there is another decisive disadvantage: In bad weather, the lasers work poorly or not at all.
The laser cannot penetrate clouds.
Israel developed laser weapons primarily to save money: they are much cheaper than missile defense systems.
sug/reuters/dpa