‘Star Wars’: South Korea uses laser to shoot down North Korean drones | Military news

South Korea says it plans to expand its laser program to hit larger targets such as aircraft and ballistic missiles.

According to its defense procurement agency, South Korea plans to mass-produce laser weapons that can be used to shoot down North Korean drones at low cost.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced the laser program known as the “Star Wars Project,” which was developed jointly with Hanwha Aerospace.

“Block-I,” the first laser system, will “be put into operational use by the military this year,” DAPA official Lee Sang-yoon told AFP news agency on Friday.

According to the procurement organization, the laser will be invisible and silent, run solely on electricity without the need for additional ammunition, and cost only about 2,000 won ($1.45) per shot. It is designed to melt the fuselage of drones and burn the electronics inside.

Seoul’s “ability to respond to North Korean drone provocations will be greatly enhanced by the new weapon system, which has shot down all of its targets in tests,” DAPA said in a statement on Thursday.

The organization said it also plans to expand the laser program in the future to be able to hit much larger targets, including aircraft and ballistic missiles, which would be a potential “game changer.” It even envisions the laser beams traveling through space to reach targets.

The system has yet to be used in practice, but it comes at a time when cheap drones dominate active battlefields around the world, for example in Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and the border clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

As a variety of unmanned weapon systems are developed and deployed in combat, defense systems can counter some of them, but at much higher cost. Laser systems could theoretically provide a more sustainable countermeasure.

South Korea joins the United States, Great Britain and China in the ranks of countries competing to develop and deploy laser weapons to counter air threats.

Technically, the two Koreas are still at war, as their 1950-1953 conflict ended not with a peace treaty but with a ceasefire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone.

In December 2022, South Korea said it had deployed fighter jets and helicopters after detecting five North Korean-launched drones in its airspace, but failed to shoot down any of them.

Tensions between the two countries have steadily increased this year, with South Korea completely suspending a 2018 military agreement in June and North Korea sending garbage-filled balloons across the border.