The equipment office of the German armed forces signed a contract with MBDA Deutschland and Rheinmetall Waffe Munition in June to develop the full system, from reconnaissance to target tracking and engagement, the companies said in statements on Thursday. The contract value is in the “mid three-digit” million-euro range, Rheinmetall said.

Several European navies are working on laser weapons, with the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy planning to fit the DragonFire directed-energy weapon on a destroyer by 2027, in work led by MBDA in partnership with Leonardo and QinetiQ. Naval vessels are particularly suited to deploy powerful lasers, as they can provide the physical space, electrical power, sensors and cooling required.

“The laser weapon system will provide our personnel deployed on naval vessels with a significantly higher level of protection, particularly when it comes to countering drones,” Roman Koehne, head of Rheinmetall’s weapons and ammunition division, said in a statement.

The laser weapon system from MBDA and Rheinmetall has a “very high level” of technological maturity, the companies said. The demonstrator has been deployed on the German frigate Sachsen, covering 28,000 nautical miles from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, and firing over 1,000 shots at air, sea and land targets in more than a year of testing, according to MBDA and Rheinmetall.

The containerized laser effector will also be a cost-effective weapon for port security, MBDA Deutschland Managing Director Thomas Gottschild said. The system can focus power on an area measuring just a few centimeters, and has proven to be effective even in adverse weather conditions, according to Rheinmetall and MBDA.

The MBDA-Rheinmetall joint venture will place “particular emphasis” on German supply chains and local systems expertise to secure national sovereignty in the technology, the companies said. Serial production will “largely” take part in Germany, according to Koehne.

In other weapon-development news, the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis said it tested its electromagnetic railgun outdoors for the first time in June, moving the system out of laboratory conditions. The institute will now work on higher energy levels and longer distances as a path towards a possible future deployable system, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Railguns use electromagnetic acceleration rather than chemical propellants to fire a projectile, and could provide a possible counter to hypersonic threats.

Meanwhile, Belgium said it will buy 20 of Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30 anti-drone cannons as well as 14 Thales GM200 radars, in addition to a previously announced plan to buy 10 NASAMS air-defense systems from Kongsberg. The country is investing €3.1 billion ($3.5 billion) to build up a layered air defense system, after two decades of going without, Defense Minister Theo Francken said.

The defense ministry declined to provide technical specifics on the modifications. However, it stated that the upgrades enhance the system’s ability to contend with high rates and volumes of fire, allowing Israel’s air defenses to more effectively manage massive, concentrated saturation salvos.

A key element of the latest test series was the operational integration of the Iron Beam. During the tests, joint operational scenarios were successfully executed and managed directly from the Iron Dome’s battle management center, the government said.

This integration is a prerequisite for future operational deployments allowing commanders to dynamically toggle between missile and laser interceptions based on the nature of the incoming threat, system availability and cost-benefit calculations.

Israel’s announcement comes amid a U.S.-Iran ceasefire, a diplomatic development that has left Israel in a state of high strategic tension along its northern border with Lebanon, where it continues to endure persistent drone salvos launched by Hezbollah.

The Iron Dome was declared operational in 2011, when it also achieved its historic first interception of a Gaza-launched Grad rocket, and since formed the backbone of Israel’s multi-layered air defense network. Each of its batteries consists of a radar system, a command center and missile launchers carrying about 20 Tamir interceptors, protecting against threats within a range of 4 to 70 kilometers.

The primary developer for the Iron Dome is the Israeli firm Rafael, which is also the primary developer for the Iron Beam.

That system is designed to neutralize targets within four to five seconds from the moment it locks onto the target, at ranges up to 10 kilometers. An Iron Beam laser pulse is deemed to cost only a few dollars while a single Tamir interceptor missile costs roughly $50,000.

Elbit revealed plans to that effect during the presentation of financial statements for 2025, though the company has kept technical details and information about the envisioned timing under wraps.

Israel ordered the system amid its joint military operation with the United States against Iran, “Epic Fury,” in which it is dealing with missile and drones fired from Iran and Lebanon.

Israel already possesses the Iron Beam laser-based defense system against these threats. Developed by Rafael, it became operational at the end of 2025. It consists of ground-based laser guns with 10 to 100 kilowatts of power, enabling a range of 2 to 10 kilometers.

Despite its effectiveness and low interception cost, Iron Beam faces a number of obstacles related mainly to atmospheric conditions on the ground.

“Putting a high-power laser in the air will enable us first to overcome some of the challenges of the ground, like weather and dust and turbulence,” said Bezhalel Machlis, president and CEO of Elbit Systems. “Flying above clouds will enable us to gain more ranges and to be more effective, and also to eliminate the threats far away from our borders.”

He said the requisite engineering work for taking the technology airborne is at an advanced stage. “When the solution will be mature and operational, I believe it will be a breakthrough in the way countries are defeating swarms and other type of threats,” Machlis said.

He hinted at a possible offensive application, too, saying, “High-Power Laser is not just a defensive weapon.”

The containerized laser system was relocated to the Laser Competence Centre at the Technical Centre for Weapons and Ammunition (WTD 91) in Meppen on Oct. 28, following a year-long trial phase aboard the German Navy frigate Sachsen, Rheinmetall said in a statement. The hand-off comes after the demonstrator completed more than 100 live-firing tests under operational maritime conditions, proving its ability to track and engage drones and other fast-moving targets.​​

The system demonstrated what Rheinmetall described as a first for Europe: successful target engagement “in front of blue sky,” meaning without using terrain as a backstop for the laser beam. The trials validated the weapon’s tracking capability, precision and reaction speed against drones, which the companies emphasized as “one of the most pressing challenges” in modern warfare.​

According to a statement by the two defense contractors, the laser weapon is designed to complement conventional cannons and guided missiles, particularly for defense against drones, drone swarms, speedboats, and potentially guided missiles at close range. Future iterations could be scaled up to engage supersonic missiles, rockets, and even mortar and artillery shells, Rheinmetall said.

The two German companies have collaborated on laser weapon development since 2019, with responsibilities divided between them. MBDA Germany handles target detection and tracking, the control console, and integration with command-and-control systems, while Rheinmetall oversees the aiming system, beam guidance, the high-energy laser source, and mechanical integration aboard naval platforms.​​

The demonstrator currently operates at approximately 20 kilowatts, suitable for neutralizing small unmanned aerial vehicles and light surface targets. However, the architecture is designed to be scalable, with future versions expected to exceed 100 kilowatts for engaging larger threats.​

The system will now undergo further land-based drone defense testing at WTD 91, one of the largest fully instrumented ground firing ranges in Western Europe. If trials continue to meet German military requirements, procurement decisions could come within a few years, placing Germany among a small cadre of nations with operational naval laser weapons alongside the United States and Israel.​

Soldiers from the U.K.’s 16th Regiment Royal Artillery, which specializes in providing air defense for ground troops, used the laser mounted on a Wolfhound armored personnel carrier to destroy drones at a variety of distances and speeds, the MoD said in a statement on Wednesday.

The ubiquity of drones over the battlefield in Ukraine, where infantry typically operates under a constant buzz of multiple UAVs overhead, has Western armies racing to find countermeasures. The U.S. Army in September tested laser-equipped Stryker combat vehicles to destroy drones, while France deployed a vehicle-mounted prototype anti-drone laser during the Paris Olympic Games.

“This is still an emerging technology, but the world has changed and we are seeing more use of drones in the battlespace,” said Stephen Waller, directed-energy weapons team leader at the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support organization, or DE&S. “This requires a more cost-effective solution to protect our troops.”

Ukrainian troops are using thousands of drones every week, including first-person view drones that can cost as little as a few hundred dollars apiece but can be lethal when packed with explosives, while small commercial quadcopters costing a few thousand dollars are used for scouting and adjusting artillery.

The “virtually limitless” ammo supply of laser weapons could make them more cost-efficient than some alternatives, the MoD said. This year’s Eurosatory defense show in Paris featured counter-UAS measures ranging from cannons with airburst munitions to net-firing drones, rockets packed with metal balls, jammers and spoofers.

The British Army’s experimental laser weapon uses advanced sensors and tracking systems to maintain lock on target, according to the MoD, which has said the setup is fully portable and easy to operate. As part of its Land Laser Directed Energy Weapon Demonstrator program the ministry in July tested the laser on enemy drones at distances of more than 1 kilometer at its testing range in Porton Down.

“Having the capability to track and eliminate moving drones will give U.K. troops a better operational advantage and these successful trials have demonstrated that we are well on our way to achieving this,” Waller said.

The MoD will now assess the steps needed to develop laser weapons for future frontline use by the British Army, the ministry statement said.

The 16th Regiment Royal Artillery tested the laser, developed in cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and an industry consortium led by Raytheon UK, at Radnor Range in central Wales. The weapon is being developed under a £16.8 million (US$21.4 million) contract from the British government.

In the live test, the soldiers destroyed dozens of quadcopter drones within the constraints of the Radnor range, the MoD told Defense News, without providing details. Radnor, situated in a steep valley, features a 5-kilometer-long testing range for 40mm cannons and aerial countermeasures.

Every engagement using the laser weapon removed a drone from the sky, and what was notable was “how quick a drone can be taken out,” Warrant Officer Matthew Anderson, trials manager for the Army’s mounted close combat trials and development group, said in the statement.

The U.K. is working on other laser weapons, and earlier this year fired the DragonFire laser weapon against aerial targets for the first time. That weapon is being developed within a £100 million program with industry partners MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ, and the ministry said the technologies employed between the two weapon systems differ.

Firing the DragonFire laser typically costs less than £10 a shot, with both the Army and the Royal Navy considering the technology for future air defense, according to the MoD.

The Army will carry teams through design and development and plans to select a winner to build an enduring HEL for short-range air defense in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, according to a broad agency announcement for the effort posted to Sam.gov.

The service held an industry day in July and has been collecting proposals with “a lot of interest from those industry partners we’ve seen and some that we hadn’t necessarily seen before,” Rasch told Defense News in an interview at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium here.

“Some of them are teaming up together. Some of them are on their own. But they see what other folks are doing and trying to get better,” Rasch added. “That is where innovation occurs and that’s where we maintain that leap ahead capability over our adversaries.”

The service has spent years developing lasers for various weapons systems and recently deployed four Directed Energy Maneuver-SHORAD Stryker Combat Vehicle-based prototypes to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to evaluate how well a 50-kilowatt laser could fulfill the mission of taking out short-range air threats.

The first prototypes consist of a 50-kilowatt laser from Raytheon. Kord Technologies, a KBR company, is the lead integrator.

Rasch said those prototypes, and other efforts like putting larger lasers on palletized weapon systems and smaller lasers on the Infantry Squad Vehicle and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, have taught the service what could potentially be the sweet spot for balancing laser power needs with other factors that play into taking out enemy air drones of various sizes.

Rasch’s office is currently evaluating 10-, 20-, 50- and 300-kilowatt options for a wide variety of threats and missions. The 300-kilowatt laser is designed for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability, which is a system that will use kinetic, laser and high-powered microwave weapons to destroy threats including rockets, artillery, mortars, drones and cruise missiles. The Army is to receive that laser weapon next year.

“That informed the Enduring High Energy Laser [broad agency announcement] that we put out,” Rasch said. “You’ll notice… that we didn’t reference kilowatts, right? It’s easy to talk about lasers in regards to kilowatts because it’s easy to get your head wrapped around more kilowatts, probably better, less kilowatts, probably not as effective or lethal, but that’s only one factor that comes into how effective the system is downrange.”

For example, Rasch noted, a 50-kilowatt system might not have an ideal beam director “so it’s not making all the proper utilization of beam forming and getting that power down range. You might not be as effective as a 30-kilowatt, so there’s multiple components and multiple levers… that come into play.”

The extensive evaluations have led the Army to see “how those systems perform from the different designs at the system level and at the component level and sub-component level. It’s really, I think, opened up the aperture on what we know about how to make effective laser systems,” Rasch said.

The Army has also learned about what will be needed to sustain directed energy systems in the Middle East.

“It’s a big step to go from lab demonstration of a capability or even taking it out to a range for a week or two to giving it to soldiers for good and then having them take it, quite frankly, in some of the most austere places that you would ever want to put equipment,” Rasch said.

“We’ve actually made some big inroads on how to do sustainment repairs in a really ugly environment where dust particles are really high,” he added. “Ultimately we want to get these systems to … where your soldiers can pull out a piece and put in another piece in a fight.”

In addition to the four prototypes already downrange, Rasch’s office will soon receive prototypes from two additional teams – Lockheed Martin and nLight – each offering different design solutions, which the office will evaluate over the next several years in addition to the original DE M-SHORAD prototyping effort.

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration said that it will deploy at least one anti-air laser weapons system called “Block-I” by the end of this year and more in coming years.

An agency statement said the “Block-I” system is capable of launching precision attacks on small incoming drones and multi-copters. It said the system, developed by local company Hanwha Aerospace, costs just 2,000 won (about $1.50) per shot.

“We face North Korea on our doorstep and its drones pose present threats to us, so that’s why we’ve been aiming to build and deploy laser weapons soon to cope with them,” an agency official said, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media on the issue.

He said that other countries like the United States and Israel are ahead of South Korea in laser weapons technology, but their primary focus has been on higher-powered laser guns that can shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. South Korea also hopes to develop such anti-missile laser weapons, which its defense procurement agency called “a game changer” in future combat environments.

The “Block-I” system is meant to hit circuit boards and other equipment in enemy drones to make them malfunction and crash on the ground. Tests of the weapons system in 2022-2023 were successful and proved its credibility, the official said.

Some experts questioned the technology.

Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, doubts how effectively South Korea can use its laser weapons since its anti-air radar systems aren’t advanced enough to detect North Korean drones well. He said the range of a laser weapon is relatively short, so high-power microwave weapons would be better when enemy drones are flown in large numbers simultaneously.

Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said South Korea is likely about five years away from acquiring a functioning laser weapon that can shoot down the drones used by North Korea.

North Korea has periodically flown drones across its heavily fortified border with South Korea for several years, in what observers have called tests of South Korean readiness. In December 2022, South Korea accused the North of sending drones across the border for the first time in five years. South Korea fired warning shots and launched fighter jets and helicopters but failed to shoot down any of the drones.

In a key political meeting in December 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to introduce various types of unmanned combat equipment such as attack drones for 2024. Foreign experts say Kim likely regards drones as a cheap yet effective method to trigger security jitters and an internal divide in South Korea.

Animosities between the two Koreas, split along the world’s most heavily fortified border, have deepened in recent months, with North Korea flying trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in response to South Korean activists floating political leaflets via their own balloons.

Aircraft are traditionally painted using a masking technique, requiring painters to use tape, film and paper to outline certain markings for a particular aircraft.

The new system being tested projects insignia and markings directly on the aircraft, providing the exact placement of objects that need painting without all the masking.

So far, the laser projection system is dramatically easier to use than the old stenciling method, according to Steven Lofy, senior materials engineer for the center’s corrosion and wear team.

“It takes an extensive amount of time and labor to mask aircraft for the application of major markings and insignia during the final finish process,” Lofy said in a statement. “It’s a demanding process based on old, paper drawings that can be difficult to read, making it challenging for our artisans to mask the exact areas on each aircraft consistently.”

It’s also saving time, he said.

“With the laser projection system, we can simply come in, turn on the projectors and actually project where each marking should be on the aircraft,” Lofy said. “All we have to do from there is line each stencil up, mask and paint.”

The readiness center first utilized the system in January on a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey for the aircraft’s signature white, horizontal stripes — resulting in an 85 percent decrease in labor hours. While the process previously took roughly 16 hours, the projector brought that number down to two.

The center has used the laser projection system to paint four aircraft so far and plans are underway to use the system more broadly by uploading 2D stencils to the projection system’s software, according to the Navy.

Based out of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, the center provides maintenance and repairs for Marine Corps aircraft — including the F-35B Lightning II. It is one of the Navy’s eight fleet readiness centers.

Over the past four years, Special Operations Command troops have been working through ways to add a launcher kit to the Combatant Craft Medium, or CCM, a 60-foot-long boat with a top speed of 52 knots that carries a crew of four and has space for 19 more passengers and a total load of 10,000 pounds.

The project aims to give boat operators an onboard “standoff, loitering, man-in-the-loop weapons system” that can target “individuals, groups, vehicles and small, oceangoing craft,” according to program materials.

But, the launcher can also carry other “effects” such as surveillance drones, electromagnetic warfare pods or sensor packages for a variety of missions, according to Navy Cmdr. Marty Burns, program manager for maritime surface systems.

An illustration of the launcher at SOF Week showed a multi-pod system with eight or more pods available to house munitions or other payloads.

Final testing and a live fire of the launcher kit are planned for late fiscal 2024 or early fiscal 2025, officials said during the Special Operations Forces Week conference, an annual gathering of the special operations community here.

When it comes to CCM payloads, a key concern is reducing the heat signature of any launcher added to the platform, to help it avoid adversary detection, Wyrick said.

The command has 31 combatant craft medium boats in its inventory.

Once testing concludes and the government-owned design for the kit is approved for installation, the command’s 31 CCMs will take turns going offline to install the kits as the rest of the fleet continues operations, Burns said.

The CCM patrol boat, made by shipbuilder Vigor Industrial, was first commissioned in 2015 to replace the rigid hull inflatable boat.

Navy Capt. Jared Wyrick, SOCOM program executive officer for maritime, said Tuesday that the command is also working on building a boat replacement, called the CCM Mk2.

Prosecutors said the three German citizens are accused of having acted for Chinese intelligence since some point before June 2022. They are also suspected of violating German export laws by exporting a special laser without permission.

One of the suspects, identified only as Thomas R. in line with German privacy laws, was allegedly an agent for an employee of China’s Ministry of State Security and procured information in Germany on “militarily usable innovative technologies” for that person, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

To do that, prosecutors said, he used Herwig F. and Ina. F, a couple who own a company in Duesseldorf that was used to contact and work with German researchers.

The couple allegedly set up a research transfer agreement with an unidentified German university, the first step in which was to draw up a study for a Chinese partner on the technology of machine parts that could be used for powerful ship engines, including those in battleships. Thomas R.’s handler at the MSS was behind the Chinese partner and the project was financed by the Chinese state, prosecutors said.

At the time of the arrests, the suspects were in negotiations on further research projects that could be useful for expanding China’s naval combat strength, they added.

The suspects also procured with MSS funding a special laser and exported it to China without permission, although it was classified as a “dual-use” instrument under European Union rules, prosecutors said. The homes and offices of the suspects, who were arrested in Duesseldorf and in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, were searched. They were arrested a week after a three-day visit to China by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his second since he took office in late 2021.

German officials wouldn’t be drawn on whether the government was aware of the case at the time but said the trip hadn’t played any role in the timing of the arrests.

In a strategy for relations with China released last year, the German government pointed to a “systemic rivalry” with the Asian power and a need to reduce risks of economic dependency, but highlighted its desire to work with Beijing on challenges such as climate change and maintain strong trade ties.

The document stated that “we take decisive action to counter all analog and digital espionage and sabotage activities by Chinese intelligence services and state-controlled groups, whether these activities be in or directed against Germany.”

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Monday’s arrests were “a great success for our counterespionage.”

“We are keeping an eye on the significant danger from Chinese espionage in business, industry and science,” she said in a statement. “We are watching these risks and threats very closely and have warned and sensitized people clearly so that protective measures can be stepped up everywhere.”