India has reached a critical milestone in defence technology by successfully demonstrating its 30-kilowatt laser-based weapon system. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed this directed-energy weapon (DEW), which is capable of neutralising fixed-wing aircraft, missiles, and swarm drones, demonstrating India’s rising expertise in modern military technology. This achievement elevates India to an elite group of countries, including the United States, China, and Russia, that have advanced laser weapon capabilities.
The 30-kilowatt laser weapon system is intended to tackle airborne threats such as drones and helicopters within a 5-kilometre range. It has extensive electronic warfare characteristics, such as the ability to jam communication and satellite communications.
The system’s versatility enables deployment on ground-based platforms or ships, boosting India’s defence preparedness across several domains. It is equipped with a 360-degree Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor for precision aiming and may be quickly mobilised by air, rail, road, or sea.
Dr. Samir V. Kamat, Chairman of the DRDO, highlighted that this breakthrough is simply the beginning of India’s path towards directed energy weaponry. He revealed continued attempts to build various high-energy devices, including high-energy microwaves and electromagnetic pulse weapons, with the goal of providing India with “Star Wars” capabilities. These technologies are part of a larger plan to fortify India’s defences against contemporary threats.
According to DRDO chairman Dr. Samir V Kamat, “As far as I know, only the United States, Russia, and China have demonstrated this capability.” Israel is also working on comparable capabilities; I believe we are the fourth or fifth country in the world to showcase this technology. This achievement marks a significant step forward in India’s defence technology ecosystem, cementing the country’s status as an emerging leader in advanced military technologies.
Because of its potential to change modern combat, major military countries across the world have made laser weapon research a top priority. These systems have significant benefits over conventional weapons, including precise targeting, little collateral damage, cost-effectiveness per engagement, and the capacity to address new threats such as drone swarms. India’s admission into this restricted area reflects its determination to developing domestic sophisticated defence technology and minimising its reliance on foreign military equipment.
The successful creation of the 30-kilowatt system has strategic ramifications that extend beyond the immediate military uses, demonstrating India’s expanding technical capacity and self-reliance in crucial security areas.
India’s route to sophisticated laser weapon systems has progressed through numerous technological phases. DRDO has previously worked on laser technology, developing devices such as the vehicle-mounted laser dazzler (VMLD) in conjunction with Mahindra. This device displayed DRDO’s increasing field capabilities, while being less powerful than the present 30-kilowatt weapon.
The VMLD was created as a non-lethal anti-personnel weapon system for crowd control, employing a powerful green laser to temporarily blind opponents without inflicting lasting harm. This previous technique, demonstrated during the 106th Indian Science Congress, was a significant stride forward in India’s laser technology development route.
In addition to direct energy weapons, the DRDO has made considerable advances in laser guidance systems. Recently, the organisation created a laser beam-riding (LBR) navigation system with an eye-safe laser rangefinder (ELRF). This technique, designed to give line-of-sight laser guidance to missiles, is effective at distances ranging from 500 to 5,000 meters. The device creates a spatially encoded laser beam that carries information, guiding missiles along its route to accurately attack targets. This guiding system is less susceptible to environmental conditions like as smoke, fog, rain, and dust than semi-active laser guidance systems, demonstrating DRDO’s complete approach to laser technology applications in defence.
DRDO’s goals for directed-energy weapons go much beyond the 30-kilowatt system that is now ready for deployment. The organisation has begun developing substantially more powerful laser weapons, including a 100-kilowatt directed energy weapon known as the Directionally Unrestricted Ray-Gun Array (DURGA) II. According to sources from 2023, this lightweight directed-energy weapon was set for testing, marking a significant power boost over the 30-kilowatt system. DEW technology uses energy from lasers, microwaves, or particle beams to convey fatal force at the speed of light (about 3,000,000 kilometres per second), allowing for high-precision strikes that can overcome gravitational and atmospheric forces.
Most notably, DRDO is purportedly developing an even more powerful 300-kilowatt directed-energy laser weapon system known as “Surya” with an impressive operational range of 20 kilometres. This system, announced in March 2025, is India’s most ambitious laser weapon technology project to date. The Surya system is especially developed to neutralise a wide range of aerial threats, including drones, missiles, and other airborne projectiles, by utilising focused energy beams for target annihilation. Surya’s high-power 300 kW output will let it to engage a variety of high-speed threats such as UAVs, rockets, and approaching missiles at long ranges, considerably improving India’s defence capabilities against sophisticated aerial threats. This development trajectory exemplifies DRDO’s methodical strategy to upgrading India’s directed-energy weapon capabilities via progressively stronger weapons with improved operating characteristics.
The successful development and impending deployment of the 30-kilowatt laser weapon system, together with ongoing work on more powerful versions, has important strategic implications for India’s defence position. These directed-energy weapon systems give India strong counter-drone and counter-missile capabilities at a time when unmanned aerial systems and cruise missiles are becoming more common threats in modern wars. The devices’ ability to engage targets at the speed of light with pinpoint accuracy and minimum collateral damage marks a paradigm leap in defensive capabilities when compared to traditional kinetic weapons.
Laser weapons’ cost-effectiveness in repeated engagements provides a strategic edge. While the initial development and deployment costs may be high, the per-engagement cost is low when compared to traditional missile systems, as laser weapons rely on power production rather than disposable projectiles.
This economic advantage is especially important when considering defence against saturation strikes or drone swarms, in which several targets must be assaulted quickly and continually. Furthermore, the adaptability of these laser weapon systems in terms of platform integration—spanning land, sea, and perhaps air domains—gives military planners flexible deployment choices across a wide range of operational scenarios.
India’s success in creating and planning to deploy the 30-kilowatt laser weapon system marks a watershed moment in the country’s defence technological capabilities. This technology, which can neutralise airborne threats at ranges of up to 5 kilometres, places India among a small club of countries with sophisticated directed-energy weapon capabilities. The system’s agility for deployment across numerous platforms, paired with superior targeting and electronic warfare capabilities, gives India more defensive choices against emerging aerial threats.
DRDO’s continued development of more powerful systems, such as the 100-kilowatt DURGA II and 300-kilowatt Surya, underlines India’s determination to expanding its directed-energy weapon capability. These systems, with their longer ranges and higher power outputs, can help India improve its position in current military technology. As global security challenges evolve, particularly with the proliferation of unmanned aerial systems and advanced missile technologies, India’s investments in directed-energy weapons are a proactive approach to maintaining effective defensive capabilities against emerging threats.
