Steph Deschamps / May 24, 2022
Is Russia using a new type of weapon in the conflict in Ukraine? That's what it said on Wednesday, May 18, as relayed by Reuters. The Kremlin said it had used a new generation of powerful lasers to burn drones. If little information has circulated until then on this kind of lasers, in 2018, Vladimir Putin had unveiled several weapons, including underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon, and thus this famous laser weapon. He had then spoken of a Peresvet, named after an Orthodox warrior monk who had died in battle during the medieval period.
This Peresvet can be deployed using a KamAZ-65225 tank transporter. At a Moscow-based press conference, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of military development Yury Borisov detailed that this new laser is already widely deployed on the territory and can blind satellites that can be up to 1,500 kilometers away from the Earth. Other more powerful systems also exist, and a recent test burned a drone in less than five seconds.
In his message to Russian television, Yury Borisov continued, If Peresvet can blind, then the new generation of these laser weapons will be able to lead to the total destruction of a target, a thermal destruction. Are they being used in Ukraine? Yes, according to him, and they are called Zadira. An intervention that made Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnky smile, comparing these laser weapons to those used by Nazi Germany when it wanted to prevent defeat in World War II. The Ukrainian president mocked his opponents for using propaganda. We are in the third month of this war and Russia is trying to find a 'miracle weapon' which shows the complete failure of its mission, he said.
If the Russian regime is talking about these new weapons, it is because the conflict in Ukraine has stalled, while Vladimir Putin was hoping for a quick war. But the words of the deputy prime minister are worrying and are being closely followed by powers like the United States and China. All these countries have been working on weapons to blind satellites for years now. Speaking finally of laser weapons that use electromagnetic bands Yury Borisov evokes a reality, not an exotic idea.