India Is Developing Its Own Star Wars-Like Weapons

It looks like the line between science fiction and reality is slowly starting to fade. India is now creating a weapon similar to that to the Death Star from the Star Wars saga.

Directed energy weapons (DEW) such as high-energy lasers isn't a new thing that's being explored by advanced militaries. In fact, US, Russia, and China are already ahead with their own developments, though actual operations are far from actually happening. Well, according to Times of India, India is also trying to get into the DEW development game.

Image Credit: Times of India

The website claims that India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has been developing a 10-kilowatt DEW over the past years, is now testing its DEW against UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) targets with "the establishment of critical technologies of precision tracking/pointing and laser beam combination."

India's DEW has apparently been tested up to 800 meters already at the country's Hyderabad-based Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS). In September last year, the capabilities of the 10-kilowatt DEW was demonstrated to the country's ed forces at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory's firing range at Ramgarh (Haryana).

The DRDO has reportedly been highly criticized due to its projects' "huge time and cost overruns," but the organisation has already developed smaller laser-based "IEDs and mines" against terrorists and "vehicle-mounted laser dazzlers" against mobs. The challenge now is reaching the "boost phase" level of the weapons like what's already being tested by the United States. This level can aim for aircraft and warships and "destroy enemy ballistic missiles."

Earlier this month, a British physicist has explained why lightsabers won't be able to work in the real world. The physicist's explanation certainly seems plausible, but with advanced government militaries creating Death Star-like weapons, I guess it's a different story when bigger weapons are created and militaries are involved.

The DRDO's DEW project is set for completion on July 2017.

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