High-energy lasers are increasingly seen as the most cost-effective way to defend against drones and missiles launched by Iran against US oil refineries and bases across the Middle East. Firing a laser is cheap—as little as $3.50 per shot, by some estimates—compared to systems, such as Patriot missile interceptors, which can cost more than $3 million per shot to neutralize a drone.
President Donald Trump told reporters this week that lasers could soon do the job of Patriot missile interceptors “at a much lower cost.”
“The laser technology we have now is incredible,” he said. “It will be out very soon.”
The idea of using lasers in this way is not new. American military leaders have spent decades trying to develop this technology, pursuing the dream of a weapon that can hit a target at the speed of light and never run out of ammunition.
Other countries, including Israel and China, have deployed their own high-powered lasers. But the US military faces significant challenges in its attempts to build and deploy them at scale. Industry experts said it could be years before U.S. soldiers use lasers in this way.
How do these lasers work?
High-energy lasers focus beams of light on a drone’s weak spots, burning its components like “a blowtorch from a distance,” said David Stoudt, executive director of the Directed Energy Professional Society, who helped invent a device to counter improvised explosive devices in Iraq.
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Like a magnifying glass used to focus the sun’s rays to start a fire, lasers must be locked onto a drone for a period of time (three seconds or more, in cloudy conditions), raising questions about their effectiveness in inclement weather or against a swarm of drones.
“This isn’t ‘Star Trek,’ where the target instantly disintegrates,” said Jared Keller, author of the Laser Wars newsletter on military technology. “Lasers are not magic. They crash into physics wherever they are operating.”
How effective are these laser systems?
High-energy lasers are powerful weapons under the right conditions, but they are not magic bullets. Moisture can bend light rays in unpredictable ways. Fog can prevent laser beams from reaching their targets. Sea spray and sand can damage highly sensitive optical components, making these weapons difficult to use or repair quickly in the field.
Four 50-kilowatt lasers were deployed to defend U.S. bases in Iraq from drone attacks in 2024, but soldiers found the weapons’ use “cumbersome and ineffective,” according to a report by the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.
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Scott Keeney, CEO and co-founder of nLight, a Camas, Wash., company that produces lasers for military and industrial purposes, said laser technology had made great strides but should not be oversold.
“It is being used and will be used in more and more applications,” he said. “But lasers are not the solution in all environments at all times. No one should say that.”
A 100-kilowatt laser packs half the horsepower of the average car, Keeney said. However, when focused into a narrow beam, it is powerful enough to damage an airplane engine.
The use of lasers as weapons also has the potential to wreak havoc on civilian life, as illustrated by the recent closure of an airport in El Paso, Texas. Pointing a laser at an airplane can incapacitate the pilot and endanger passengers. Nearly 11,000 laser incidents were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration last year.
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Do other countries use lasers to counter drones or missiles?
Israel has been experimenting with lasers. A system called Iron Beam, manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, an Israeli company, has been touted as a technological breakthrough. But Israeli officials say the latest version of Iron Beam, a 100-kilowatt laser the company delivered in December, is not ready for use in the current war, according to The Jerusalem Post.
In December, Electro Optic Systems, an Australian defense contractor, reached a deal to provide a 100-kilowatt laser to South Korea. And the Ukrainians have been attracting international attention for the Sunray, a laser small enough to fit in the trunk of a car, according to The Atlantic.
China unveiled its own 180-kilowatt shipboard laser, the LY-1, in September.
How much do they cost?
It may be cheap to fire high-energy lasers, but the systems containing them can cost a fortune. Lockheed Martin received a $150 million contract in 2018 to build two prototypes. The result was a 60-kilowatt ship-mounted system called High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzling and Surveillance, or HELIOS, which is deployed on the destroyer USS Preble in Japan.
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The U.S. Navy is still evaluating how well the system’s delicate optical components hold up against prolonged exposure to salt water and humidity, according to people familiar with the matter.
Some media reports have mistakenly identified a laser aboard a ship in the Gulf as HELIOS, but it was actually ODIN, a less powerful weapon that disorients drones with dazzling beams of light but does not destroy them, according to Keller.
The high price of HELIOS led Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, to encourage smaller companies to compete for laser contracts last year. He designated “directed energy at scale,” which includes powerful lasers and microwaves, as one of six critical priorities for the Department of Defense.
Under a $35 million contract, Keeney’s company, nLight, recently delivered to the Army a laser that can produce 70 kilowatts of power.
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Does the United States have the materials to manufacture them?
Manufacturing at scale could pose additional challenges.
High-energy lasers amplify light by adding impurities to glass with rare earth metals such as ytterbium, which is strictly controlled by China, according to a 2024 report from the National Defense Industrial Association, a nonprofit association of defense suppliers.
High-performance lasers also use semiconductors made from gallium, a rare earth metal produced primarily in China.
Manufacturers “can only produce a small number of systems with long lead times,” the report on laser systems says. He added: “Efforts to ramp up production quickly would run into problems including the production of optical components (e.g. diffraction gratings, mirrors and lenses), beam directors and batteries.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
