Laser weapons are a major player in future warfare for two fundamental reasons.

1. The electricity consumed in taking down an enemy drone is probably the cheapest way to destroy an enemy drone per shot.

2. Investing in large batteries capable of destroying large swarms of drones isn’t necessarily a sunk cost in a counter like building physical, expendable interceptors is. A large battery is extremely useful for an infinite amount of things on the battlefield.

Consider that a C-UAS laser on a main battle tank with an electric drive system can essentially “divert power from the engines to the shields” in an organic process where a single large decisive resource is shared for various uses. Similarly for an attack helicopter a battery resource could be shared between sensors/EW warfare and C-UAS ammunition.

Given Ukraine’s battlefield experience and Germanies military industrial capability this is absolutely one of the most important factors in how drones will impact geopolitics in the medium term.