Russia has let the world know about one of its new weapons capabilities, when it was revealed that the former Soviet nation has laser weapons, including a mobile laser system which was initially announced in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The new laser weapons can apparently blind orbiting satellites and destroy drones – this coming weeks after U.S Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to put a ban on satellite destroying technology.
The weapon itself is called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet, who perished in combat and little else is known exactly about what the new weapon does as when it was unveiled in 2018, Putin did not give too many specifics.
The deputy Prime Minister, Yury Borisov, in charge of military development, told an audience at a conference held in Moscow that the new weapon had already been widely deployed, and that the weapons could blind a satellite 1,500 km above the Earth.
Borisov cited a recent test of the weapon, and he said that it managed to burn up a drone which was 5 km away in around five seconds.
“It is already being mass-supplied to the (missile) troops, and it can blind all satellite reconnaissance systems of a likely enemy in orbits of up to 1,500 km, disabling them during flight due to the use of laser radiation,” Borisov said.
“But that, let’s say, is of today, or even in some ways of yesterday: our physicists have now created, and practically mass-produced, laser systems which are more powerful by an order of magnitude that can inflict thermal destruction on various apparatus,” Borisov said.
It seems that Russia has made a few advances and progress with Peresvet, and it is rumored there are other weapons that are yet to be unveiled – something that is of great interest to the United States and China.
The United States uses satellites and other systems to watch Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles and other weapons like drones, so the news that those satellites could be taken out of action is being taken lightly.
Boris said during the conference that he had only recently returned from Sarov, a town in the Nizhny Novgorod region, known at one time as Arzamas-16. This area was the center of Russia’s nuclear weapons research and was a highly secret place because of it.
“Today, so-called weapons systems based on new physical principles are on the way,” Borisov said.
“This is primarily a laser weapon, an electromagnetic wideband weapon that will replace (conventional weapons) in the next decade – this is not some sort of exotic idea; it is the reality,” Borisov said.
The Biden administration is hopefully paying attention, as Putin puts more strength behind him. Unfortunately, as earlier stated, the fact that Kamala Harris wants a ban on testing satellite weapons, could see the United States put on the back foot.
This article fails to mention that any “weapons system” that puts out laser emissions is very easily targeted and destroyed.