South Korea is beginning the mass production of a low-cost laser weapon that has successfully shot down small drones during testing, the country’s key arms agency said Thursday.
The laser weapon, called Block-I, “can precisely strike small unmanned aerial vehicles and multicopters at close range,” a news release from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said.
The release did not give a cost for the weapon, but said each shot fired would only cost about $1.50.
Imagery supplied by the agency appears to show a weapon around the size of a shipping container with a laser mounted on top and what appears to be a radar or tracking device mounted on one side of the platform.
So, 30 million for the setup and deployment but 1.50 per drone. Plus it is huge and unweildy.
Gonna need a lot of drones to make that more cost effective than another drone with a stick or net, both of which have been effective in the defense of Ukraine.
lol
This is probably an early step towards a man portable setup so I’m just joking about the focus on the cost to fire.
Agreed, this is definitely first gen research.
Probably 2nd or 3rd gen, laser weapons have been in the works for decades.
There’s a rheinmetall video on YouTube, it’s a few years old already. Definitely not first gen research, and it’s good there’s competition already
The US already has a DEW unit that fits in a UTV (Side by Side) for shooting down smaller drones.
The US also has a more powerful palletized version that fits in the bed of a pickup truck.
The South Koreans are just a few years behind is all.
Why did it take so long?
The Journalist targeted a drone at long range and burned through the body. Make the drone closer and select a less beefy component such as a rotor arm and they go down quicker. BTW if you didn’t catch it in the article maximum effective range is well over 1 mile.
You also have to remember the US Military also isn’t going to allow a Journalist to publish the full capabilities of a fancy new future-tech weapon like this. Gotta leave some surprises in place!
Lmao Ukraine is about to become devoid of birds
Any radar sensitive enough to pick up drones is going to have an insane number of false positives
Modern radars can see way more than just size. You’re right that there should still be a human in the loop, though.