China Debuts 30kw Vehicle-Mounted Laser Weapon

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By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) The People’s Liberation Army is now firing a vehicle-mounted 30kw laser weapon as an air defense weapon to counter drones, incoming enemy missiles and low-flying aircraft, a military move bringing their ground force into a new era of lethality and attack flexibility.

The LW-30, recently unveiled at a Chinese air show, fires from a vehicle-integrated canister firing system at air targets while on the move. The advantages brought by laser weapons are both numerous and well known, as they are not only scalable for effect but also able to travel quietly at the speed of light to incinerate targets without generating large amounts of debris or fragmentation from a kinetic intercept. Lasers are also of course lower cost per shot, and technology in the realm of exportable mobile power small and compact enough to integrate into a vehicle and generate sufficient power continues to make exponential leaps forward.

These breakthroughs in the realm of expeditionary power are extremely significant, as an ability to build in enough transportable electricity sufficient to sustain high-powered lasers has indeed been a long standing challenge for weapons developers. A Chinese government-backed newspaper, called the Global Times, describes the Chinese weapon as having an efficient kill rate, meaning it can destroy multiple drone targets in a matter of seconds.

30kw Vehicle-Mounted Laser Weapon

The Chinese paper says the LW-30 can hit what’s called “slow and small targets,” described as those flying beneath an altitude of one kilometer, at speeds of 200 km per hour. The weapon can also reportedly target and destroy weapons with a radar cross section smaller than one square meter, the paper says.

The tactical advantages of laser weapons are also quite well known and established, although weather obscurants can lead to beam attenuation and complicate targeting precision. Nevertheless, lasers of course attack at the speed of light, can be scaled to either disable or fully destroy and incinerate a target and bring the distinct advantage of achieving a critical battlefield “effect” without causing large explosions.