20-kilowatt powerful laser weapon that can fry enemy drones delivered to Germany

Interesting Engineering ^ | October 29, 2025 | Prabhat Ranjan Mishra

[Celtic Conservative]

Rheinmetall, maker of dangerous toys since 1889.

CC

[SunkenCiv]

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[sauropod]

I’ve been to Meppen.

[Jonty30]

Lasers basically obsolete drones, or goes a long way to doing so.

[PGR88]

What’s the power source and how will it be carried into the field?

[Red Badger]

It’ll be on a ship...............

[DesertRhino]

Germany…. Ending electricity, buying an electric weapon. Blockheads

[alternatives?]

Where do they get all the power needed to keep track of their citizens and power their weapons? You think they would have figured that out in WW2.

[A strike]

"The companies pointed out that the laser weapons system offers new possibilities for counter-operations against non-cooperative targets."

[NonValueAdded]

as well as for attacking speedboats

HEY, I HAVE AN IDEA!!!

[Nachoman]

It must use a dedicated power station similar to those used by all the new data centers being built.

[McGruff]

“is expected to be deployed for operational use starting in 2029. “

Just hold on until then Ukraine. You can win this.

[alexander_busek]

What’s the power source and how will it be carried into the field?

Lasers like this one need an extremely short, but intense blast of energy - usually delivered by a very rapid and violent chemical reaction. Think "Hoover Dam power levels, but only for a millisecond."

Regards,

[SaveFerris]

LOL 🤣

[Doctor Congo]

So far no one is even trying to shoot down the mysterious drones that have been flying over Europe. I do not know if this laser weapon is for the battlefield drones or the mysterious ones.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

When I worked at BAE, my group (on a project I was not part of) demonstrated a kinetic weapon (gun) that could easily automatic plunk drones, like shooting skeet. The videos were impressive, and fun. They also had a laser weapon, but could not demonstrate it because of range safety concerns for aircraft 50 miles away. They had also developed a system installed on a Bradley fighting vehicle that could detect and shoot down RPG’s, at any azimuth, but that’s all it could do.

[PTBAA]

They need to minaturize this so it can be mounted on the head of a shark.

[EandH Dad]

Didn’t Israel and Lockheed team up for this already?

[catnipman]

not many technical details, either ... like how many times can the laser be fired before expensive, critical components melt, wear out or disintegrate and must be replaced ...