South Korea to mass produce lasers that can take out drones at $1.50 a hit

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

South Korea is beginning the mass production of a low-cost laser weapon that has successfully shot down small drones during testing, the country’s key arms agency said Thursday.

The laser weapon, called Block-I, “can precisely strike small unmanned aerial vehicles and multicopters at close range,” a news release from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said.

The release did not give a cost for the weapon, but said each shot fired would only cost about $1.50.

Imagery supplied by the agency appears to show a weapon around the size of a shipping container with a laser mounted on top and what appears to be a radar or tracking device mounted on one side of the platform.

Flags of North Korea, rear, and South Korea, front, flutter in the wind as pictured from the border area between two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, on Aug. 9, 2021.

Related article South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean drones enter its airspace

DAPA said the unit measures 9 meters by 3 meters by 3 meters (29.5 feet by 9.8 feet by 9.8 feet), and fires laser rays that are difficult if not impossible to detect before impact.

“It is invisible and noiseless, does not require separate ammunition and can be operated only when electricity is supplied,” the DAPA release said. Future versions could be developed to take out much bigger targets, including aircraft and ballistic missiles, which would be a potential “game changer,” according to the release.

DAPA will develop “a laser anti-aircraft weapon (Block-II) system with improved output and range compared to the current one,” the release said.

But the Block-I weapon itself comes online at an important time. In Ukraine, the Middle East and