DRDO-LASTEC developed Laser Ordnance Disposal System(LORDS) is the first laser based Directed Energy Weapon(DEW) in operational service of the Indian Armed Forces. Though it is not an offensive system, its deployment brought valuable lessons for future DEW R&D and deployments.

Borrowing from the LORDS laser, dazzlers were developed. Initially as crowd control devices (Pic 1). More powerful variants came up that could overwhelm IIR seekers from >10 km away. Named the Helios-AD system, it had 2 variants(Pic2-3). It is not known if it entered service.

We've already seen 2 anti-drone DEW systems deployed: 1st was during US President's India visit. The system may be a modified version of an old DRDO DEW project. In 2017, DRDO had developed 10kW & 2kW lasers. The system deployed here is probably using the 10 kW DRDO laser.

The 2nd anti-drone system deployed was during Independence Day. Unlike the 1st system, this had both hard-kill & soft kill options. It can bring down micro-drones at 3 km using soft kill & lase targets at 1-1.25 km. The laser used is likely the 2 kW laser previously tested.

BEL had in 2018-19 showed their anti-drone system. It employs soft-kill to bring down the drone by severing communications between drone and user or by GPS-spoofing. This was meant for the Army & was deployed during Independence Day along with the DRDO made 2 kW laser system.

DRDO has a 100KW laser named ADITYA. Unlike the other lasers which are solid-state, this one is a Gas Dynamic Laser. It is not portable & has a lot of complex plumbing. Despite the problems, gas lasers are vital as they can be scaled up to MW power levels in a single aperture.

DRDO has capacity to produce single/poly-crystal optically transparent laser ceramics using a variety of methods. These ceramics are used in solid-state & fiber lasers. The current production & testing capacity is sufficient for the rate of production & deployment of laser DEWs.