DRDO working on Star Wars-like weapons

From "heat rays" in H G Wells' science fiction novel 'The War of the Worlds' of 1898 to galactic super-lasers in George Lucas' continuing ' Star Wars' film saga, concentrated energy weapons have been fantasised about for long without them becoming operationally viable.

But advanced militaries now think directed energy weapons (DEWs) like high-energy lasers and high-powered microwaves will become strategic game-changers in the not-too-distant a future. While the US, Russia, China and others are leagues ahead in the race to develop advanced DEWs, though their actual operational deployment is still some distance away, India is also trying to make some headway towards such futuristic weapons.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO) is already tom-tomming its ongoing development of a 10-kilowatt DEW against UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) like targets, with "the establishment of critical technologies of precision tracking/pointing and laser beam combination".

The "system" has been tested up to a range of 800 meters at its Hyderabad-based Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS), and was also demonstrated to the armed forces at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory's firing range at Ramgarh (Haryana) in September last year.

Development of DEWs and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons has been identified as a top-priority area in the 15-year " technology perspective and capability roadmap" chalked out by the defence ministry, as reported by TOI earlier.

The DRDO, often criticised for huge time and cost overruns in its projects, says smaller systems like laser-based ordnance disposal of IEDs and mines, hand-held laser dazzlers to overpower armed terrorists and vehicle-mounted laser dazzlers for controlling unruly mobs have already been developed.

But the real challenge will be in achieving the declared aim to develop solid-state laser DEWs for aircraft and warships, which can destroy enemy ballistic missiles in their "boost phase itself", somewhat akin to what is already being tested by the US.

The DRDO's Laser Science & Technology Centre is working on an array of systems from "chemical oxygen iodine lasers" to "high-power fiber lasers" for strategic uses, which includes a 25-kilowatt laser to take on a ballistic missile du-ring its "terminal phase" at a distance of 5-7 km.

All this has gained momentum after the government in February 2014 sanctioned Rs 115 crore for development of "experimental technology modules for directed energy laser syst-ems" by CHESS, with the project completion date being set for July 2017.