Russia announced on Wednesday (18) the use in Ukraine of a new laser weapon, capable of burning drones used by Kiev forces. According to the Kremlin, its troops have resorted to secret weapons to counter the equipment sent by the West to the country now invaded.
In a televised conference, Yuri Borisov, deputy premier in charge of the country’s military development, said the weapon could inhibit the operation of satellite sensors up to 1,500 km from Earth.
Details of the equipment were not revealed, but in 2018, while presenting a series of new-generation weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed off a laser weapon called the Peresvet, named after the Orthodox monk Alexander Peresvet, who was killed in combat in 14th century.
Asked if the device used in the war was the one presented by the Russian leader, Borisov said that there are already Russian systems more powerful than the Peresvet and that they are capable of damaging drones and other equipment. The one used on the other side of the border, points out the Russian, is called Zadira.
According to him, tests carried out earlier showed that the new weapon is capable of destroying a drone from 5 km away in five seconds. “If Peresvet blinds [os sensores dos satélites]the new generation of laser weapons leads to the physical destruction of the target”, he said at the time. “It is a thermal destruction, they burn [o alvo].”
As late as 2017, Russian media said that Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom had helped develop the Zadira as part of a program to create weapons based on new physical principles.
In addition to burning drones, the new equipment also has a strategic impact, because satellites are used to monitor intercontinental ballistic missiles that carry nuclear weapons. Such equipment could be used, for example, in a large-scale war.
Borisov said on Wednesday he had just returned from Sarov, a city in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region that is home to the country’s nuclear weapons research center. Based on what he saw at the scene, the Russian said he believed the new generation of laser weapons could replace conventional weapons.
The Russians’ announcement came at a time when the global arms industry is heating up, in the wake of rising tensions between the West and Russia and China. Moscow even seems to be taking advantage of the conflict in the neighboring country as a laboratory for its military equipment.
In March, the Russians fired a hypersonic ballistic missile and destroyed a large underground weapons depot in western Ukraine. Weapons capable of evading detection by missile defense systems, Kinjal missiles can hit targets at distances of over 2,000 km.
The US, in turn, announced on Monday (16) the completion of a successful test of a hypersonic weapon, which, according to the Americans, flew at five times the speed of sound.
China also reportedly tested hypersonic weapons last year, according to US military officials – the orbital bombing system gives Beijing more options for hitting US targets. The foreign ministry of the Asian country, however, denied in October that it had carried out a test of these weapons.
Even North Korea, another American rival and backed by Moscow and Beijing, jumped on the bandwagon and announced in January that it had launched such a missile. There is no independent confirmation of the claim, but it is evident that this type of technology has become a priority in the anti-Washington camp.
