Russia has unveiled ray gun laser weapon mounted on Buk air defense armoured vehicle 12206152

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Defence & Security News - Russia
 
Russia has unveiled ray gun laser weapon mounted on Buk air defense armoured vehicle
During the defense exhibition Army-2015, Russia has unveiled a futuristic ray gun capable of zapping unmanned drones out of the sky in preparation for the robotization of modern and future wars, reported news agency TASS.
     
During the defense exhibition Army-2015, Russia has unveiled a futuristic ray gun capable of zapping unmanned drones out of the sky in preparation for the robotization of modern and future wars, reported news agency TASS. The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory, July 30, 2012.
     
Mounted aboard the chassis of a Buk anti-aircraft missile launcher, the ray gun will have a 360 degree firing arc and be able to take out military-grade, shielded electronics at a range of 10 kilometers, a representative of the United Instruments Corporation (UIC) told TASS.
 

The weapons' specifications place it in a class far above similar directed energy weapons in service and in development in the West.

Similar weapons in the West have much shorter ranges and are typically able to only fry commercial-grade, unshielded electronics. Military-grade electronics, such as those used in drones, helicopters and precision-guided missiles, are shielded against radiation, and therefore require new and extremely powerful countermeasures to disrupt them.

"In terms of technical characteristics, it has no known analogues in the world," the UIC representative said.

U.S. Navy has recently fired witha laser ray gun mounted on a warship, zapping - and setting fire to - an empty motorboat as it bobbed in the Pacific Ocean.

Built by Northrop Grumman Corp in Redondo Beach, the laser system could be used to blast apart incoming cruise missiles, zap enemy drones out of the sky or possibly even shoot down ballistic missiles one day.

The laser's power can be also “scaled down”, offering the Navy a non-lethal alternative to ward off threats such as pirates, terrorists and smugglers, said Rear Adm Nevin Carr, chief of the U.S. Office of Naval Research.