Anti-drone directed energy weapons continue to evolve at sea
USS Portland downed a test drone via a solid state laser system in 2020. (Photo: Jonathan Word/US Navy)
Defence companies have been accelerating the roll out of directed energy weapon systems to counter the growing importance of drones in modern maritime warfare.
As drones continue to emerge as a major factor in modern war theatres in Europe and the Middle East, attention to their effects have often focused on air and land combat.
Azerbaijan’s Israeli-made loitering munition drones and Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 attack drones proved decisive, for example, in destroying Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh tank and air defence units on land during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War between the two sides in 2020.
Drones have also caused a paradigm shift in conflict at sea. The Russian Black Sea fleet has been marginalised during Russia’s conflict with Ukraine since 2022 by Ukrainian naval drone warfare,
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