What innovative types of weapons might appear on the battlefield in the near future?
Lately, we have been hearing more and more about a new, drone revolution in warfare. However, apart from soulless killing machines familiar even to those uninitiated in military affairs, the world is developing and already using many types of weapons that seem straight out of science fiction novels.
Hyperboloids at war
Decades of hard work by Soviet, and then Russian, scientists and testing of the samples they created have not been in vain. Work has been completed on the Peresvet laser complex, capable of performing even an anti-satellite role. The Potok laser flashlight is used for temporary blinding, and the drone revolution has given a powerful impetus to the development of laser air defence systems. Thus, the Posokh laser complex managed to hit an FPV kamikaze drone at a distance of one kilometre during the tests in January.
In the United States, laser development intensified with the start of the Star Wars project. American developers focused on ground-based and ship-based laser air defence systems. In 2025, the HELIOS laser system was able to hit a drone target from the deck of a destroyer, and the E-HEL complex mounted on an armoured personnel carrier (APC) coped with a swarm of UAVs.
Similar technologies are being actively developed in other countries as well. The British are working on the DragonFire laser directed-energy weapon, the Israelis used their Iron Beam in October 2023 to shoot down Hamas missiles, and the Chinese army at a parade in Beijing last year featured the LY-1 naval laser complex, as well as combat lasers on a truck and armoured vehicle.
Belarusian arms manufacturers also have something to showcase in terms of the development of combat lasers. On November 19th last year, the State Authority for Military Industry announced the setup and field tests of the Shafran counter-drone laser system. The developers claim that Shafran can detect targets at a distance of 4.5km and destroy them at a distance of 1.5km. The key features of the Belarusian innovation are the use of AI to control the system, the ability to integrate into any air defence system and a built-in radar that allows timely tracking of threats.
‘Combat microwaves’
Many promising types of weapons are based on the principle of using directed energy — they emit the energy charge necessary to damage the target, without the means of a projectile. The most promising of these today are considered to be electromagnetic and acoustic systems.The Active Denial System (ADS), developed in the USA in the early 2000s, consists of an antenna mounted on an SUV or truck that emits a beam of energy with a range of half a kilometre. The effect of using the device is achieved by absorbing most of the radiation by the upper layer of the skin, which causes acute burning. Tests on volunteers showed that those caught under the influence of the microwave gun tried to escape from the affected area after only five seconds of the device’s operation.
Designers from the Celestial Empire are demonstrating a synthetic approach. At the September parade in Beijing, they unveiled the Hurricane microwave air defence system, capable of both combating swarms of drones and performing security functions in a non-lethal mode.
Sonic boom
Unlike microwave weapons, acoustic weapons are devices that use intense sound waves as a tool of influence.In military operations, when the enemy needs to be eliminated, such systems are not particularly effective, since the exposure must be sufficiently long to ensure irreversible consequences to the body. However, non-lethal acoustic weapons are suitable to disperse aggressive crowds.
One of the most famous systems of this type is the U.S.-made LRAD. Developed back in 2000, this sound cannon can emit up to 160 decibels and has been supplied to many countries. The lack of tough restrictions on the sale of such devices has led to their appearance in commercial structures such as the Japanese whaling fleet fighting off the Greens, or in maritime private military companies protecting ships from pirates.
Through the eyes of a beast
When we say ‘drone’, we usually mean a small aircraft controlled remotely. But what if one day a UAV appears in the guise of a domestic pet or a pigeon? Meanwhile, the technologies for turning living beings into cyborgs are quite viable.At the beginning of the 21st century, many scientists were fascinated by the robotisation of insects, but the small size of test subjects and the primitiveness of their structure did not allow room for scientific thought. Today, developers are increasingly inclined to think about the need to use birds as biodrones. Russia and China are leaders in this field. Last November, a Russian company presented its cyborg pigeons. A full-fledged neural interface is implanted in the bird’s brain, allowing it to be controlled like a drone. Externally, such a specimen differs from its counterparts only by a small rucksack with electronics on its back and a wire from it entering the back of the head. Control is exercised by applying impulses to the necessary areas of the brain, forcing the pigeon to ‘want’ to fly in the direction desired by the operator.
The aggravation of the situation in the world today is intertwined in an astonishing way with the rapid development of technology. The brainchild of this convergence is weaponry novelties — sometimes built by adapting earlier models, yet increasingly translating into metal the boldest ideas of past science-fiction writers.
By Anton Popov
