Combat lasers can be an effective means of countering unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the battlefield, but it is necessary to increase their target channel capacity. This was stated by military expert Evgeny Damantsev.
According to him, combat laser-beam systems will sharply lose efficiency with a high coefficient of attenuation of laser radiation in the atmosphere and difficult meteorological conditions. Therefore, they will have to be duplicated by electromagnetic microwave (MW) systems.
The analyst drew attention to the fact that, unlike, for example, the four-channel Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile-gun system, which is capable of simultaneously intercepting up to four drones with four 57E6 anti-aircraft missiles, one combat laser has only one beam, and, therefore, only one target channel.
One laser system should have at least four or six laser-beam modules, which need autonomous powerful energy units for power supply. In this case, electromagnetic microwave systems look more attractive.
Damantsev recalled that at the moment the Russian army does not have laser-beam and electromagnetic microwave systems that have reached operational readiness.
Alexey Rogozin, General Director of the ANO "Center for the Development of Transport Technologies", stated that laser systems in the next 3-5 years may become a key weapon for combating unmanned aerial vehicles.
Earlier www1.ru reported that the Bastion and Bal coastal defense missile systems during the exercises destroyed ships of a mock enemy in the Baltic Sea.
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