High-energy lasers could change the rules of the game as much as the invention of gunpowder. The idea of ​​a gun that can hit multiple targets at lightning speed for as little as a dollar a shot (whereas missiles sometimes cost millions) is appealing and is already seen as a way to counter drones, missiles, hypersonic weapons. and other threats.

what is known

QinetiQ Australia received $8.74 million from the Australian Ministry of Defense to develop a high-energy laser. The company’s partner will be the Defense Science and Technology Group (DSTG) in South Australia.

Similar weapons are being developed in the USA, England, Russia and China. It’s mostly seen as a way to counter air threats, but Australia sets itself a slightly different mission: lasers must hit armored vehicles, including main battle tanks.

The world’s most powerful laser weapon today is the Lockheed Martin system, which produces a beam of 300 kilowatts. This is enough to eliminate a wide variety of threats. However, drones, missiles, mortars, and planes lack armor, making them vulnerable to the deadly penetrating power of a high-energy laser. But tanks are a completely different matter. The main battle tank is covered with a thick shell of highly complex armored plating. NATO tanks, for example, use various Chobham armors. The nature of this armor is strictly classified, but according to recent rumors it is a combination of depleted uranium layers with steel alloys, composites and ceramics. The result is armor that is extremely resistant to blast, heat, kinetic and penetrating bullets. It is also very thick and massive. Consequently, although a laser could theoretically pierce such a defense, In battlefield conditions this will be a slow and difficult process at best.

The real challenge is that an anti-tank laser has to deliver a large amount of energy to a single point on the armor that can absorb and dissipate a lot of heat, so the laser needs to be very fast. That means developing a solid-state laser that will be far more powerful than anything available today. However, a more powerful laser means an upgrade of the entire weapon system, including the power supply, the doped fiber optic coils that generate the laser, focusing lenses, guidance systems, beam stabilizers and more. For this reason, Australia funds not just one laser, but an entire production complex.