Name: Could lasers help fend off Iran's cheap drones? | 60 Minutes
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T21:36:28.000Z
Duration: 13 min 9 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

Our highly sophisticated interceptor missiles, Patriots thads against Iran's low tech drones, made of materials you can largely get at your corner hobby store.

While attacks by Iranian drones were down this past week, the amount of damage they have done has come as a jolt.

An Iranian drone attack caused the first American casualties of the war when it kills six soldiers in Kuwait.

Iranian drones are a drain on the US weapons stockpiles and a threat to the Strait of Hormuz.

We have found that in the race for a counterweapon, there are contenders that look like science fiction lasers that focus on zapping drones out of the sky.

This is Iranian propaganda footage of its arsenal of drones that have been menacing the Gulf states.

Blasting apartment buildings, airports, oil refineries.

These shahed drones are getting faster, stronger.

They can move in swarms and there are tons of them.

Perhaps their greatest advantage, how cheap they are often made of flimsy plastics.

One costs as low as $20,000 to shoot them down.

The US is using anti missile interceptors that cost millions.

It changes the economics on how we can actually defeat and defend against these targets that are now being deployed and produced by tens of thousands.

Waheed Nawabi is CEO of American defense contractor AeroVironment AV that makes lasers that he says solve the money disparity.

So let me give you an example, a real example.

A Patriot missile battery cost about a billion dollars to procure one system.

Each missile cost about $4 million a shot.

The cost per shot goes from $4 million a shot to less than $5 a shot.

The price difference of firing a missile or a laser is like buying a mansion versus a cup of coffee.

We visited AV in Albuquerque where their laser system called Locust is built.

The top part that looks like Wall E is the beam director.

The deadly ray blasts out of one of the eyes.

The base contains batteries as the power source and a cooling system.

Each unit costs roughly $8 million and can be stationary or installed in the back of a truck.

Multiple battles in different theaters around the world, including against Shaheds.

Are you telling us that it has been deployed in the Middle East?

He said he's not allowed to tell us exactly where, but

That drones have become so pervasive in the war brings up the question, why didn't the US have a cost effective solution ready?

They went into this war prepared for certain threats, like missiles.

They did not go into this war prepared for other threats, like drones hitting soft targets.

Mara Karlin worked at the Pentagon in both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Her last job was assistant Secretary of Defense for strategy plans and capabilities.

Is Iran doing anything that surprises you?

If anyone were to war game this out, you knew there were a couple things the Iranian regime would do.

They would always look at how to use cheap, tough to counter capabilities like drones in as many spots as possible.

Is there anything within our arsenal to confront the drones?

So I can't tell you that there is one magic solution that will do it.

And frankly, that's kind of the history of warfare.

You find multiple ways to counter different challenges, and

then your enemy either catches up or they then get a counter to that counter.

While AV is not a household name, it's a leader in developing drones as well as lasers.

But their lasers face stiff competition from some of the giants, including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Israel has Iron Beam, part of the Iron Dome.

Ukraine has a system, and China just revealed its lasers in a large military parade.

John Garrity, who's in charge of the Locust program, showed us how it works.

First, Locust's radars find the enemy drone up to seven miles away as it moves toward the target.

Then an operator, in this case me, locks in on the drone by clicking an ordinary Xbox controller.

I'll have you tap that bumper one more time.

From that point on, the laser tracks the drone as it approaches, using AI I don't have to touch anything.

It's going to follow the drone wherever it goes.

And that's the beauty of a laser weapon system, that ability to track and take that overhead burden off of the operator as it gets two to three miles from the system.

So imagine, if you will, you're taking a beam of light or a flashlight and pushing that out several miles away.

And that creates enough heat to melt through the plastics or what the material is that these drones are made of.

For a closer look, he had a drone placed in a hangar.

The door was bolted, and we observed on monitors outside.

John showed me what an operator would do.

All right, Leslie, what I'm going to ask you to do right now is go ahead and pull the trigger.

Watch closely, because the invisible beam travels at the speed of light.

The beam went right through the drone and you can see there instantaneously, flames.

This is what the drone looked like afterward.

We were able to see the beam through cameras sensitive to infrared light.

And so what you're seeing there is effectively clear light that's traveling across the sky and hitting the target that you intend.

So the benefit of a laser system is you can just keep on lazing at that target until it goes down.

Can this shoot down 100 drones at the same time?

Because you're only taking one second or less to kill some of these drones, depending on the range, you can quickly go through and complete your mission.

Right now, today, is it strong enough to shoot down the Shahad drones that Iran is sending in?

So we've had a lot of great success with those types of drones.

And our new locus system is directly intended to get after that Shahad fight.

As drone technology keeps evolving, lasers have to keep up.

Laser technology overall is still relatively young and experimental.

Ongoing military tests have raised concerns about performance, accuracy, how heavy the battery is, how much energy is required, and

how effective the beam is in certain weather conditions.

I'm told that there's a lot of trouble with these systems.

If it rains, if it's humid, if it's sandy like in the desert, if there's fog, if there's dust.

Now, when you're talking about, does the system operate in rain?

Well, traditionally, drones aren't flying in rain.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Could lasers help fend off Iran's cheap drones? | 60 Minutes

multiple

demonstrate

effective

commercial