The defeat of Russian logistics columns in February-March 2022, the destruction of expensive air defense systems in the Kharkiv region and Crimea, and the mass destruction of Russian boats and equipment during the battles for Zmiiniy Island - all this is part of the work of the already legendary Bayraktar TB2 complexes and high-precision laser-guided munitions.
At the initial stage of the invasion, Russian front-line air defense proved unprepared to counter Bayraktar drones with mini-bombs, which, when guided by a laser dot, hit the core of Russian landing craft, anti-aircraft missile systems, or communications equipment.
Over the past three years, the situation has changed dramatically, and now Turkish UAVs operate much less, performing fire adjustments and reconnaissance from much greater distances from the line of contact.
However, high-precision laser-guided munitions have not disappeared. During the Cold War, they were almost the main means of high-precision destruction of enemy targets before the advent of GPS and other means of guiding shells and bombs. Today, NATO countries have thousands of such weapons, which can strengthen the Ukrainian army.
And importantly, such ammunition is resistant to enemy electronic warfare. You just need to point the laser beam at the desired object, and the ammunition will fly to it by itself.
To do this, laser guidance equipment was installed directly on the aircraft, which tracked the target until the munition hit. Ground-based portable stations were also used, which were placed near the target by special forces.
However, both methods have their drawbacks. If the aircraft makes sharp maneuvers to evade air defenses while tracking the target, the munition will simply miss its target. And sending special forces groups behind enemy lines to target from the ground always increases the risk of losing highly qualified specialists.
Realizing this, dozens of teams have emerged in Ukraine that are working on various options for laser-guided munitions from the air, namely from drones. Those UAVs that until recently bombed enemy positions in night raids or flew 200 km deep into enemy territory for reconnaissance are now being equipped with irradiation and targeting systems.
"Oboronka" explains how laser guidance technology is returning to the battlefield and what systems Ukrainian developers have already created.
How does laser guidance work?
For laser munitions to work on the battlefield, a laser designator is required, which creates and directs a laser beam to a point indicated by the operator. This is a rather complex and expensive system to manufacture.
Thanks to this target designator, the laser beam forms a bright contrasting point on the object, which is noticed from a great distance by sensors installed in the homing head of the missile or bomb. After detecting this point, the munition captures it and directs its flight to its destination.
Precision bombs or laser-guided artillery munitions became a trend in the world's leading armies back in the 1980s. With the development of technology, there was a transition from conventional carpet bombing with conventional free-falling bombs to the destruction of targets with one or more precision munitions.
Some of the most famous cases of laser guidance were operations Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991 and Deliberate Force against Yugoslavia in 1999. High-precision munitions have become indispensable means of destroying enemy fortifications, command posts, warehouses and equipment. It is almost impossible to imagine the fight against terrorist groups in the Middle East without this technology.
The most famous example of a guided laser munition is the American Paveway system. It is a set of weapons that are mounted on a bomb and a carrier aircraft.
It consists of a target detection and tracking system located on the aircraft, as well as a homing head and a set of aerodynamic elements, i.e. stabilizers and rudders on the munition to adjust and increase its flight range.
Today, there are about two dozen variations of the Paveway system for free-fall bombs and specialized aviation munitions. The equipment is mainly integrated into the American Mk 82, Mk 83, and Mk 84 bombs. Some of these bombs are also in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Laser guidance has solved several important problems for armies at once, both during large campaigns and operations with limited forces.
First, laser targeting provides precise real-time target engagement and tracking, allowing the target to be destroyed with a single round of ammunition, even under enemy electronic warfare.
Second, one precision-guided munition or laser-guided bomb can replace dozens of conventional unguided munitions. The result is a huge saving of money and time on transporting tens of thousands of conventional bombs or artillery shells to another part of the globe.
Third, precision weapons have significantly reduced the number of flight missions. Instead of dozens of takeoffs and landings with conventional free-falling bombs, with the risk of losing planes to enemy air defenses, you can do with a few sorties with precision weapons.
In artillery, the benefit is also obvious – preserving the barrel's lifespan due to fewer shots.
Fourth, reducing collateral damage. High accuracy avoids unwanted damage and civilian casualties near the target.
Laser-guided ammunition in service with Ukraine
New laser-guided ammunition appeared in Ukraine along with the purchase of the aforementioned Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones in November 2018.
At the same time, Turkish laser-guided munitions were purchased. These are the MAM-L mini-bombs with a 10 kg warhead and the smaller MAM-C with a 2.5 kg warhead. Targeting is done from the drone itself.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, the Ukrainian army received a lot of high-precision weapons with laser guidance capabilities from its partners. We are talking about aerial bombs, artillery shells, and guided rocket munitions.
Ukrainians are well-known for the American JDAM-ER and GBU-39 bombs and the French AASM Hammer. These bombs are guided by GPS, but each of them has a modification with a laser guidance module. Such modifications combine the work of the GPS module and the inertial system for precise delivery of the ammunition to the target area, and in the last seconds of the flight the laser is turned on, which orients the ammunition.
And although the Ukrainian military currently uses aerial bombs mainly with GPS correction, the development of Russian electronic warfare makes laser targeting one of the guarantees of accurately hitting an enemy target without the risk of missing the target due to enemy interference.
The British Brimstone missiles, which are actively used by Ukrainian special forces, also have the ability to be laser-guided. As Militarnyi wrote, the missiles were delivered with an active homing head that searches for the target itself. It is currently unknown whether Ukrainian military missiles were modified for laser guidance. However, work is currently underway to integrate such missiles into the equipment of the Defense Forces.
The APKWS system is used as a high-precision means of striking positions and equipment directly on the front lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These are modernized 70-mm Hydra 70 missiles, which are guided to the target using laser targeting.
These missiles are also designed to shoot down air targets. Thanks to the ground-based target designator in the VAMPIRE complex, APKWS have become an effective means of destroying Shahed drones.
Since 2024, Ukrainian artillerymen have begun using American 155-mm corrected M712 Copperhead shells.
Fire is conducted from howitzers at a range of 3 to 16 kilometers. The M712 is programmed in two operating modes - ballistic and "low-flying". In ballistic mode, a projectile on a high trajectory captures a laser dot on the target and adjusts its movement to it. In low-flying mode, its trajectory is similar to the flight trajectory of a cruise missile with additional guidance.
Laser guidance from a drone
Since the combat line is saturated with air defense systems, a laser-guided bomb carrier aircraft will not be able to independently irradiate the target to guide the munition.
But if you illuminate an enemy object with a laser beam from a drone, which will have smaller dimensions and "shine" from the rear, then this solves the problem.
The same works for ground-based munitions, which can also be guided to targets from UAVs, rather than ground stations, which have limitations related to the terrain and the height of their installation. In addition, "manual" guidance is dangerous for the military.
Given the large range of high-precision laser-guided munitions, the supply of which to Ukraine may expand significantly, domestic developers have begun integrating laser irradiation systems into their own unmanned aircraft platforms.
One of the manufacturers of reconnaissance drones of the "Krylo" type, who wished to remain anonymous, has integrated a laser guidance system into his drone. It is already used on the front line together with artillery units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. The company's R&D department has been working on the integration of laser guidance for UAVs for about two years.
In July of this year, FRDM codified its solution for laser guidance from UAVs . Engineers installed a 6.5 kg laser designator module on an R-34 quadcopter drone.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine noted that the R-34-T drone will be used for air strikes with guided bombs and artillery strikes with high-precision ammunition.
"The laser guidance technologies that have been created in Europe so far are very expensive. Our task is to make laser guidance technologies more accessible. Because Ukraine needs a lot of such systems today," explains Vadym Yunyk, CEO of the defense technology company FRDM, to Defense journalist.
A system from a foreign developer was installed on the Ukrainian drone for laser illumination. It consists of a designator that generates a beam, an optical complex for visual observation of the target, and a software complex for its tracking.
The laser beam has a power of 70 millijoules. It will work on targets at a distance of 5 km, since at a closer distance there is a greater risk of losing the drone. However, it should be noted that the laser beam is sensitive to weather and dust, which affects its range.
"Among the users of these systems can be both aviation and infantry units for which aviation provides support. For example, an infantry unit has raised a drone with equipment, the target is illuminated, coordination with aviation takes place, then a shot is fired and the approach is made. We focus not only on working with helicopters, but also on guiding bombs such as JDAMs. and, of course, ammunition from drones. The main thing is that it is ammunition that meets NATO standards. There are quite a lot of such ammunition in the world today," FRDM representative Anton tells Defense.
It is assumed that the R-34-T crew will consist of three people – two pilots and one laser target designator operator. The use of such drones will require special training, since in addition to sensitive expensive equipment, speed of operation is important. In 35-40 minutes, it is necessary to take off, reach the work point, carry out target designation and return.
In the future, drone bombers with laser guidance systems will be equipped with mini-bombs similar to the Turkish MAM-C. Several such projects are being tested in Ukraine. The effective use of such weapons will be from a height of about 800 m.
FPV drones with laser guidance
Laser guidance is being considered to improve the effectiveness of FPV drones in critical missions. DWARF Engineering is improving its own FPV guidance module with the ability to aim at a laser dot. According to the developers, this provides a number of advantages on the battlefield.
"Targeting is provided by a reconnaissance drone. The advantage of this approach for us is that a drone with a laser can aim at a distance of 3 km and automatically hit the target, without paying attention to the work of electronic warfare. Without a laser, the target is automatically captured at a distance of 400-800 m from the drone," Vladyslav Piotrovsky, co-founder and executive director of DWARF Engineering, tells Defense.
To create this complex, the team is collaborating with Ukrainian startup M-Fly. They developed a gimbal (optical module for a reconnaissance drone) that has a camera with a thermal imager and a laser target designator.
The cameras manufactured by the startup have a tracker that DWARF Engineering integrated into its own guidance system with an autopilot, which switches to a laser dot at a crucial stage of the flight.
"We have already conducted a number of tests. We have completed the integration and we have the final tuning left, so we are already working on the first deliveries," says Piotrovsky.
Both teams plan to present their FPV laser guidance solution publicly soon.
Effective, but not ultimatum
Interest in the topic of high-precision guidance is growing. Ukrainian manufacturers are integrating Western solutions and developing their own technologies. Laser targeting systems are already on "wings" and "bombers", correcting shells and bombs. And they may soon find their place among FPV platforms.
CEO of the defense technology company FRDM Vadym Yunyk emphasizes that laser targeting is a new challenge for Ukraine, and the market for these systems is currently developing rapidly. Due to the fact that a full-scale war has been going on for more than 3.5 years, the issue of high-precision destruction is the key that will reduce ammunition consumption and reduce the time of calculations on the front line. And laser guidance is one of the elements of this trend.
At the same time, the laser guidance technology itself is quite well known and tested and has been used since the 1960s. This opens up certain prospects for Ukraine in obtaining additional assistance and competences in this area.
Laser munitions are an effective but not a definitive solution. They have their advantages as well as disadvantages, such as vulnerability to weather conditions and loss of target designation if the laser dot disappears.
However, GPS-guided munitions also have their weaknesses in the face of enemy electronic warfare. A clear balance and combination of different means is needed for the realities of the front. And it is in such a system that laser guidance, along with other keys to high-precision destruction, will make a significant contribution to the defense of Ukraine.