The U.S. Navy recently rebooted the SSL-TM, a 150-kilowatt laser weapon aboard the USS Portland. This returned effort could ...

France has unveiled a handheld laser weapon that can melt drone optics at 500 meters without a sound, and Ukraine's ...

The LOCUST Laser Weapon System, a 20-kilowatt counter-drone weapon, conducts tests at the Military Institute of Armament Technology in Zielonka, Poland in February 2026. (Photo by STR/NurPhoto via ...

The Pentagon thinks modern lasers might finally be ready for missile defense duty.

High-energy laser weapons are a natural fit for large, power-rich aircraft carriers—with limits. When U.S. Navy leaders declared that “the dream of a laser on every ship can become a real one” earlier ...

Cheaper than advanced air defenses and more versatile than low-tech options, lasers have become a popular choice for nations worried about drone attacks. By Lara Jakes Lara Jakes frequently writes ...

Laser weapons are such an entrenched sci-fi trope that it's easy to forget just how real this tech can be (and is). While we're not exactly close to seeing real-life "Star Wars" space battles, the U.S ...

The only real laser weapon that saw service during the 20th century was a low-power laser used by the Royal Navy during the 1982 Falklands War to temporarily dazzle and distract enemy pilots. Not that ...

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here. For decades, the U.S. military’s dream ...

Artist rendering of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser. (Lockheed Martin) Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons ...

One of the most distinctive features of the U.S. military’s high-energy laser weapon of choice isn’t the system itself—it’s how operators control it. The logic of embracing the handset simple: If the ...