According to the website of Indian media Eurasia Times, India successfully tested a truck-mounted laser system in Karnataka in 2018. The laser beam hit a target 250 meters away and took 36 seconds to burn a hole through a metal plate.
The Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) now plans to build a more powerful laser with a longer range, sources said. India’s privately owned Kalyani Group, too, is seeking to develop and manufacture a directed energy weapon that can produce a concentrated beam of electromagnetic energy.
DEWs include high-powered lasers and microwaves, which cause unbearable burns to the human body and blindness and thus have anti-personnel effects. DEWs can also destroy missiles, ships, and drones, destroying the electrical circuits on these devices.
The U.S. Navy has been developing directed-energy weapons since the 1960s and could be equipped in three years with a 300-kilowatt-class laser weapon that is powerful enough to take down cruise missiles.
India is seriously lagging behind the US and China, despite successfully test-firing only a 1-kilowatt laser weapon in 2018, according to military analyst Xiao Tian. China displayed a low-altitude laser air defense system nicknamed the “Silent Hunter” at the Abu Dhabi Defense Exhibition in the United Arab Emirates back in 2017.
This vehicle-mobile laser weapon system has a standard output power of 30 kilowatts and a maximum range of 4,000 meters. The laser is mainly used to intercept low-altitude drones and can burn through five layers of 2 mm-thick steel plates at a distance of 800 metres and 5 mm-thick steel plates at a distance of 1,000 metres.