Why lasers, at $3 per shot, may be the next frontier for stopping drone attacks
Amid attacks from cheaply made Iranian Shahed drones, the U.S. is looking toward new, cost-effective ways to neutralize the threat.
A drone attack killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait. To shoot down the drones, which can cost as little as $20,000 each, the U.S. military is using anti-missile interceptors that cost millions.
Laser technology is still relatively young and experimental. But with a cost of just a few dollars a shot, lasers are being looked at as a possible solution as combatting Iran's drones drains the U.S. weapons stockpile, according to Wahid Nawabi, CEO of American defense contractor AeroVironment.
"It changes the economics on how we can actually defeat and defend against these targets that are now being deployed and produced by tens of thousands," Nawabi said.
What to know about Iran's drones
Iranian drones are a drain on the U.S. weapons stockpiles and a threat to the Strait of Hormuz. Propaganda video from the Islamic Republic showed the country's arsenal of drones, which have been used to menace the Gulf states: blasting apartment buildings, airports and oil refineries.
The drones are getting faster and stronger and can move in swarms. Their greatest advantage may be just how cheap they are. The drones are often made of flimsy plastics.
The U.S. and other Arab states have been taking down the drones using missile interceptors, each of which costs millions. Just days into the war, U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf were already running low on interceptors, CBS News reported. President Trump, in a March 2 Truth Social post, said the "United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons."
How the lasers work
Mr. Trump has also expressed interest in laser technology, calling it "incredible" on March 8. He said the lasers would do the work of Patriot missiles at a much lower cost.
The U.S. has pursued laser weapons for years. AeroVironment, which has sold its lasers to the U.S. military for use along the border with Mexico, employs a laser system called Locust. The base contains batteries as the power source and a cooling system, while the top part is used to blast out rays. Each unit costs roughly $8 million and can be stationary or installed in the back of a truck.
Locust's radars can find enemy drones up to 7 miles away, according to John Garrity, who is in charge of the program at AeroVironment. An operator locks in on the drone using an ordinary X-Box controller. From there, the laser uses artificial intelligence to track the drone as it approaches.
"That's the beauty of a laser weapon system, that ability to track and take that overhead burden off of the operator," Garrity said.
The laser will fire when the drone is just a few miles away from the system. A beam, traveling at the speed of light, will shoot out and melt through the drone.
Locust has been deployed in battle around the world, including against Shaheds, according to Nawabi. He said he cannot specify where specifically the laser has been used.
AeroVironment is a leader in developing lasers, but the company faces some stiff competition from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Other countries are working on lasers as well: Israel has the Iron Beam as part of the Iron Dome; Ukraine has a system and China just revealed its lasers during a large military parade.
How soon lasers could make a difference in the war with Iran
For AeroVironment's lasers to be used in the Iran war by states other than the U.S., the Pentagon and the State Department would have to approve the sale to the Gulf states because of the national security aspect of the technology.
"There's a chicken-and-egg thing in here. So far, we've only been authorized and allowed to provide this to the U.S. military," Nawabi said. "So I cannot go at risk and build $1 billion worth of this stuff when I don't have a contract in place that allows me to have a security or guarantee that somebody's going to buy it."
It would take months for AeroVironment to scale up laser production even if the government gave the go ahead for a sale to Gulf states tomorrow.
Mara Karlin, who worked at the Pentagon under both Democratic and Republican administrations, said she feels the U.S. went into the war with Iran prepared for missiles, not "for other threats like drones hitting soft targets."
There's no "one magic solution" to taking down Iran's drones, she said.
"That's kind of the history of warfare," Karlin said. "You find multiple ways to counter different challenges, and then your enemy either catches up or they then get a counter to that counter."
Critics question lasers' usefulness
Karlin could see laser technology fitting into the U.S. arsenal, but said it hasn't been invested in enough. Using them would also require the intelligence to back up their use in the field.
"At this moment in time, they are very valuable. When we are sitting here six months from now, I don't know that will be the case," she said.
As drone technology evolves, lasers have to keep up. Ongoing military tests have raised concerns about performance, accuracy, how heavy the battery is, how much energy is required and how effective the beam is in certain weather conditions.
Some critics have pointed toward potential issues in the event of rain, humidity, sand or fog.
"Now when you're talking about 'does the system operate in rain,' well traditionally drones aren't flying in the rain," Garrity said.
He noted that Locust has also been "actively deployed and placed at their battle stations and never had to come inside during any weather event."
After Locust was used in U.S. border operations, the FAA shut down air space twice, worried the systems could interfere with and hurt commercial planes, Nawabi said. He said that's not the case — if the laser shot a beam at a plane, it wouldn't burn through, disable and crash the flight.
"The system is designed to not make mistakes like that," Nawabi said.