Ukraine military officials revealed the country’s new “Trident” laser air-defense weapon — which officials said can shoot down aircraft from more than a mile away and could be a game-changer in the conflict.
“It really works; it really exists,” Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, confirmed at the Europe Defence Industry conference this week.
“We can state that today Ukraine is, if I’m not mistaken, the fifth country that can say it has a laser weapon,” Sukharevsky added, according to the Kyiv Post.
“We are already able to shoot down planes at an altitude of more than 2 kilometers [ about 1.2 miles] with this laser.”
Sukharevskyi did not provide any further details about the weapon but said the laser was named the Tryzub — the Ukrainian word for a “trident” which is the symbol used on the national coat of arms.
He also said Ukraine is developing a program for “queen-drones” – large carrier drones capable of deploying smaller strike drones, the outlet reported.
In April, former British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said that a prototype of the United Kingdom’s DragonFire laser, which is set to be unveiled in 2027, could be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones.
Shapps said at the time advanced laser weapons could have “huge ramifications” in the war, which has raged since Feb. 2021, according to The Telegraph.
“It didn’t have to be 100% perfect in order for Ukrainians perhaps to get their hands on it,” Shapps said at the time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week fired his general Oleksandr Lutsenko, who was overseeing fighting in the country’s eastern region, as Russia makes its fastest advances since the war began.
Zelensky has replaced several other generals last month as part of “internal changes” he said were needed amid Moscow’s advance and the introduction of North Korean troops to the battlefield.
Since the Nov. 5 election, Zelensky has expressed a willingness to cede territory to Russia to end the war.
Presdident-elect Donald Trump has made ending the conflict a priority once he is back in the White House.
