Laser Weapons Are No Longer Science Fiction

A few weeks ago, Ukraine unveiled the Sunray—an anti-drone laser weapon. That same day, aviation officials abruptly shut down airspace above El Paso, Texas, after Border Patrol agents fired their own laser. On Thursday, the U.S. military used a laser to take down a drone along the Texas-Mexico border.

All of this happened within days of each other. This isn't science fiction anymore. Actual militaries are deploying actual lasers in actual combat.

A Century-Old Dream Realized

"This is a technology that has been under development for decades," says Iain Boyd, aerospace engineer and director of the University of Colorado Boulder Center for National Security Initiatives. "And it's only really now just really starting to enter the public view."

Lasers have lived in our imagination for over 100 years. H.G. Wells depicted Martian heat rays in his 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Star Trek's phaser guns have captivated us since the 1960s. Star Wars centered its entire plot around a planet-annihilating superlaser.

But reality was different. As Woody dismissively told Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story: "It's not a laser. It's a—it's a little light bulb that blinks."

Not anymore.

The Physics and the Problems

LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Simply put, it exploits quantum properties of atoms to amplify and streamline energy.

While regular light sources scatter light at different wavelengths in all directions, laser beams move at a single wavelength in a single direction. We already use this technology daily—from laser pointers for pets to barcode scanners to laser-cut car parts.

The challenge was always power. Theoretically, combining hundreds of thousands of laser pointers could create a deadly weapon. In practice, the engineering proved nearly impossible.

Nikola Tesla reportedly worked on a "death ray" in the 1930s that could shoot down airplanes from 250 miles away, firing 100 billion watts at a point just one-hundred-millionth of a square centimeter. It was preposterous—but this was Tesla.

The U.S. launched secret operations to complete Tesla's work during the Cold War. They failed. The Reagan administration poured billions into its "Star Wars" program, aiming to deploy space-based lasers against incoming nukes. That failed too. Starting in 1996, the military spent $5 billion trying to equip 747s with missile-destroying lasers—the "Flying Lightsaber." Another failure.

The Breakthrough Decade

Real progress came in the 2000s. Earlier prototypes used massive tanks of toxic chemicals—powerful but unwieldy. Scientists eventually found ways to draw comparable power from solid crystals, making weapons small enough for trucks or aircraft.

Handheld Star Wars-style laser guns remain impossible, says Phillip Sprangle, University of Maryland professor and former head of beam physics at the Naval Research Laboratory. The power source and cooling system are simply too large.

By 2014, the Navy equipped the USS Ponce with a laser weapon, though it was never used in battle. Since then, the laser fleet has grown. The Army added anti-drone lasers to trucks. The Air Force deployed ground-based systems. Russia, China, and the UK are all developing laser weapons. Last year, Israel became the first country to use a laser in combat, destroying a drone.

In November, the U.S. military identified lasers as one of its six technological priorities.

Reality vs. Fiction: The Unexpected Differences

Real laser weapons differ dramatically from their sci-fi counterparts. They're silent—no "pew pew" sound effects. The beam is invisible. (Wells actually got this right in 1898.) Drones seem to spontaneously combust, "as if struck by invisible lightning."

The advantages are compelling:

Speed of light: More than 200,000 times faster than the fastest bullets Infinite magazine: Only needs power to keep firing Cost-effective: $13 per shot vs. $2 million for standard missile interceptors

But there are drawbacks. Lasers keep going. Miss a drone, and the beam could travel hundreds of miles to hit a commercial airliner—hence the El Paso incident. Even hitting the target can scatter light and blind innocent bystanders.

The irony? Border Patrol's "threatening drone" was a party balloon. Thursday's military target turned out to be... another Border Patrol drone.

The Democratization Dilemma

At $13 per shot, laser weapons represent a fundamental shift in military economics. Small nations and non-state actors could soon afford sophisticated defense systems. The technology that once required billions in R&D is becoming accessible.

This democratization cuts both ways. Ukraine's Sunray levels the playing field against Russia's drone swarms. But the same technology could empower rogue actors or create new forms of asymmetric warfare.

The regulatory challenges are already apparent. The El Paso airspace closure revealed coordination failures between agencies. If a Border Patrol laser can ground commercial aviation, imagine the chaos when these weapons proliferate globally.