Ukraine claims to have fielded a drone-killing laser weapon

Yahoo

19-03-2025

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Ukraine claims to be one of the first countries to have successfully developed a laser anti-aircraft weapon, according to a high-ranking military official.
The secretive device has reportedly been employed on the battlefield against low-flying targets, likely unmanned aerial vehicles like the Iranian-made Shahed drones. It was first revealed in an interview with a Ukrainian news outlet by Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, the commander of the unmanned systems forces within the Ukrainian military.
The device is known as 'Tryzub,' or trident in English, referencing the Ukrainian national symbol, which is superimposed in yellow on a blue background in the country's now world-famous coat of arms.
Information on the new system is scarce and jealously guarded. It was first publicly mentioned by Sukharevskyi in mid-December when he revealed the weapon's existence and some key parameters at a defense industry conference in Kyiv, as reported by the Ukrainian Interfax news agency. Asked about it again by Radio Free Europe in February of this year, he confirmed that the weapon was operationally deployed.
Speaking in the context of battlefield innovations to counter the threat of Shahed and similar drones and loitering munitions, he said that: 'I repeat – laser technologies are already striking objects at a certain height.'
No pictures of the Tryzub have been released yet and it was not possible to independently verify the Ukrainian military's claims. Nor have there been any indications as to where it was deployed or exactly what or how many targets it has engaged.
A spokesperson for Brave1, the Ukrainian government's 'united coordinational platform for defense tech,' said that it was 'unable to provide any comments regarding the Tryzub weapons system or its development' in response to an inquiry.
It is unclear to what extent the Ukrainian laser weapon may still be in an experimental phase. Although the military has claimed that it succeeded in shooting down enemy 'aircraft,' it is entirely possible that there may be just a single system and its mobility may be limited.
Laser weapons can be rather bulky due to their need for power generation and cooling infrastructure. This is a big part of why many of the systems developed around the world are ship-based. However, experts said that a laser weapon system with the specifications that Ukraine reportedly has may be made to fit onto a truck bed.
Comparable weapons, such as the South Korean Skylight, which entered regular production last year and has a similar range of two to three kilometers, is housed in a container with a volume of 81 cubic meters and generates approximately 700°C heat during ten- to twenty-second impulses. It entered service in December 2024.
Despite the technological challenges, many major players have toyed with the idea of developing similar weapons, and some have dabbled in research and design. The promised advantages primarily focus on the ability to defending against large numbers of low-cost attack aircraft, including drone swarms, at low cost.
In fielding such a system, Ukraine would join an elite club of significant military-industrial powers that have developed laser weapons and an even smaller group that has deployed them. It comes as part of broader Ukrainian efforts to reshape the battlefield through innovation.
The Unmanned Systems Forces, which appear to be involved in the operation and possibly the development of Tryzub, considering its commander's role in announcing the system's existence, was only established in 2024. It has also been involved in Ukrainian innovations of drone-swarming technologies that reportedly enhanced their ability to strike deep within enemy territory.
Lessons learned from Russia's war against Ukraine may have hastened the development of laser weapons in other parts of the world. A month before South Korea's laser weapon entered service, Japan revealed its own truck-based 10-kilowatt laser, which had been in development for more than four years.
Ukraine's opponent, Russia, has also invested in laser technologies. In 2019, its Peresvet system was officially announced as having been deployed with five strategic missile divisions around the country. This weapon, however, is primarily meant to blind satellites in space rather than destroy drones much closer to Earth. Russia's deputy prime minister in 2022 claimed that a new laser weapon, named Zadira, was deployed in Ukraine capable of destroying targets up to five kilometers away within five seconds, much more akin to the Tryzub that Ukraine now claims to have developed.
The U.S. and Ukraine at the time said there was no indication such a system was actually in use by Russian forces.
Germany, Israel and the United States all also have near-operational, land-based laser weapons systems, while other countries like Turkey and Australia are also indigenously working on them.
There has been some speculation whether the Ukrainian laser might be a derivative of the British DragonFire system. Significant amounts of the British 'lethal aid' for Ukraine remain classified 'for both operational and commercial reasons,' as the defense ministry has stated.
The U.K. government had teased its intention of sending its laser system to Ukraine in April 2024, before backtracking a month later and stating that it would not be included in the government's 2024 aid package, UK Defence Journal reported. Leo Docherty, the British armed forces minister at the time, noted that the system was not yet ready, with the expected date for completion being 2027, a deadline that had been moved forward from 2033. Docherty's statement left the door open for potentially sending the weapon to Ukraine once the development phase was complete.
Defense News reached out to the companies cooperating on the DragonFire system. MBDA, which leads the project, declined to comment, while Leonardo said that 'there is no connection between Tryzub and the Dragonfire system.' Qinetiq did not respond to the request.
It is entirely possible that Tryzub is indeed an indigenous Ukrainian development. The country has a significant military-industrial base rooted in its significance to the Soviet military complex, important parts of which were based in the now-independent country. Combined with what is commercially available in the laser realm, crafty local engineers might have been able to build a Tryzub-like weapon, industry experts said, adding that the few publicly released parameters seem plausible.
'Laser directed-energy systems, in a military context, are predominantly at the proof of concept stage,' an industry insider, who asked to remain unnamed to discuss sensitive technologies, said. 'These could, in theory, be fielded as an initial operating capability.'
The country has radically restructured its defense R&D and acquisition procedures, which has dramatically boosted innovation and responsiveness, a January report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank showed. In the first nine months of 2024 alone, over 600 domestically developed new weapon systems were approved by the Ukrainian government.
And Ukraine's February defense expo showcasing domestic military developments, Defense Tech 2025, promised a special focus on lasers and anti-Shahed weapons in its promotional materials – descriptions that fit the Tryzub – alongside other cutting-edge technologies like swarming drones, lethal autonomous weapons and sea drones.
Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces did not respond to a request for comment on this topic.