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| Little is known about the specifics of the new laser weapon |
International Military - A major battle between Russian and Ukrainian troops in the Donbas region, met with a combination of drones and artillery. The Ukrainian military generally widely deploys its attack drones to repel Russian troops. These drones have been deployed across the country on important missions and have delivered several victories. And the most popular is Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 drone war.
Quoted from The Guardian, the Bayraktar TB2 drone helped the Neptune missile to successfully sink the Russian warship, Moskva. There are also Switchable drones designed for "suicide" missions. Swichable drones have carried out several attacks against Russian convoys and equipment. The Ukrainian military has also modified some commercial drones to be able to carry ammunition or bombs.
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Citing the EurAsian Times, there was an incident in early May, where an armed Ukrainian drone managed to drop a bomb on a Russian T-90 tank. The threat from these drones is very real, and a huge problem for Russia. In retaliation, Russia has carried out several of its ground-based counter tactics to counter Ukrainian drone attacks.
Ukrainian drones are in fact very likely to be tracked by radar. So, it is quite possible for Russia to eliminate these drones by shooting them down.
Initially, Russia used anti-aircraft missiles to attack these drones. However, the price of missiles is very expensive, and excessive use will deplete the ammunition of their air defense weapons. In essence, missiles are a very expensive method of countering cheaper drones.
Deploy the next gen laser weapon
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Yury Borisov, said that his country had used next-gen laser weapons to destroy Ukrainian drones. "Yes, the first prototype is already there, Borisov said the weapon is called the Zadira," he said.
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Russia has deployed its newest laser weapon in the war against Ukraine known as the Zadira laser system. This Zadira can burn drones in the sky in just five seconds. It is clear that Russia fired this laser at the Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone which was deployed near Snake Island.
Zadira's next gen laser weapon is capable of burning targets up to 3 miles or about 5 kilometers and blinding satellites up to 1,500 km above the earth. While nothing is publicly known about the Zadira system, in 2017, Reuters reported that Russian nuclear company Rosatom was up to something.
Namely developing and creating new physical principles based on weapons, which is believed to be the forerunner of Zadira itself.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Response
A laser-based weapon to shoot down drones is in fact still in the development stage by the world's military. So, most are still in the pilot or prototype stage, and their military utility in conflict has yet to be tested.
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The claim for Russia's next-gen laser system did not frighten the Ukrainian president. The impression of Volodymyr Zelensky is the opposite, he mocks and compares it to the term "magic weapon" during Nazi Germany.
"The clearer it is that they (Russia) have no chance in war, the more propaganda is evidence that we see Russia touting this 'magic weapon', demonstrating the complete failure of their mission," Zelensky said, quoted by the EurAsian Times.
The ridicule also came from a missile expert, Dr. Uzi Rubin who says that Russian laser weapons are just a fiction from Star Wars. "In the real world, you have to target first and wait for the laser to heat up and destroy the target," says Rubin .
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There are also some analysts who say the Russian laser system is powered by the same small nuclear reactor used on submarines. Knowing that, these analysts come to two questions as quoted from The Guardian.
1. Does Russia have sufficient energy supply to operate the laser?
2. If it is true to use a nuclear reactor, is it really safe?
"If Zadira uses a nuclear reactor, it will be very dangerous if this drone explodes. It will cause a small nuclear disaster and expose Russian soldiers to radioactivity."