After yet another massive drone and missile barrage plunged parts of Ukraine into rolling blackouts, local engineers are racing to finish a new weapon called Sunray.
The compact laser system is meant to quietly burn Russian attack drones out of the sky before they can hit power plants, neighborhoods, or the transformers that keep the lights on. Can a silent beam of light really stand up to waves of low-cost flying bombs?
Kiev plans to make Sunray the core of a national anti-drone shield that could start operating this summer, backed by swarms of cheap interceptor drones and new autonomous systems. The idea is simple but ambitious. Stop as many threats as possible with weapons that cost less than the drones they are shooting at, and keep scarce Western missiles for the hardest targets.
Why Ukraine needs a laser shield now
In early February, Denys Shmyhal reported the largest Russian air assault of the year, with 447 drones and missiles fired at the country’s energy system.
The strikes damaged the Burshtyn thermal power plant and Dobrotvir thermal power plant and hit 750 and 330 kilovolt transmission lines that form the backbone of the national grid, forcing nuclear stations to cut output and triggering between four and a half and five stages of emergency outages across the country.
For ordinary families, those statistics translate into dark stairwells, silent elevators, and the constant worry of whether the fridge will thaw before the next surge of power. Officials say they also had to ask Poland for emergency electricity supplies, a reminder that every attack eats away at both security and the economy, not to mention the monthly power bill.
Inside the Sunray laser prototype
Sunray is a high-energy laser mounted in a housing that resembles a backyard telescope, light enough to ride in the trunk of a car or on the roof of a pickup truck. During a test described by journalist Simon Shuster of The Atlantic, the system silently tracked a small drone, focused its invisible beam, and set the target on fire in a matter of seconds.
Developers say Ukrainian engineers built the prototype in about two years for a few million dollars, with each unit expected to sell for several hundred thousand dollars, far below the cost of traditional air defense batteries.
In simple terms, Sunray concentrates light on a small spot of the drone until its skin and electronics overheat, a bit like a kid using a magnifying glass to scorch a leaf on a sunny day. As long as there is electrical power, the system can keep firing without worrying about running out of missiles.
Fighting a war of attrition on the cheap
The economic logic behind Sunray is hard to ignore. Lockheed Martin received a $150 million contract to develop the HELIOS laser system for the U.S. Navy, with options that could push the program close to $1 billion, and the first unit only reached a destroyer after several years of work.
By contrast, Ukrainian engineers hope to field Sunray batteries for a tiny fraction of that cost while still burning down small drones that threaten cities and power plants.
That focus on price is also shaping a broader anti-drone strategy. Air defense commander Pavlo Yelizarov has stressed that foreign arms makers can afford to think in terms of business, while Ukrainians feel pushed by the need to survive and therefore move faster, as several recent interviews and reports underline.
In everyday language, he argues that firing high-end missiles at cheap Shahed drones is like using a Bentley to haul potatoes, and that a cheaper mix of lasers and interceptors is a smarter way to keep the skies safe.
Layered defenses with P1 Sun and SEEDIS
Kiev does not plan to rely on lasers alone. Drone maker SkyFall produces the P1 Sun interceptor, a high-speed quadcopter with a 3D-printed body that costs about $1,000 per unit and carries roughly half a kilogram of explosive to ram or blast incoming drones.
Company representatives say these drones have already shot down more than one thousand Russian targets, including around seven hundred Shahed-type attack drones, and are now in mass production.
Another pillar of the future shield is SEEDIS, an autonomous interceptor unveiled by System Electronic Export and NAUDI at the World Defense Show in Riyadh.
SEEDIS plugs into the Krechet control network, which links radars and launchers so that when an enemy drone approaches, software automatically selects an interceptor, launches it vertically, and guides it toward the target at speeds up to about 320 kilometers per hour, using onboard cameras and artificial intelligence to identify and lock on to the drone from several hundred meters away.
From prototype to national shield
Ukrainian officials describe these technologies as parts of a future national dome over critical sites such as power plants, rail hubs, and major cities. President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked his new defense team, including minister Mykhailo Fedorov, to have an integrated air defense system in place by summer, a timeline that even insiders admit is extremely tight.
At the end of the day, the goal is not futuristic gadgets, it is fewer funerals and fewer nights spent without heat or light. For families trying to charge a phone before the next outage or keep food from spoiling in a warm apartment, a quiet laser cannon and a fleet of buzzing interceptors could make the difference between fear and a fragile sense of normal life. For most Ukrainians, this is about survival today, not weapons of tomorrow.
The main report on the Sunray program has been published in The Atlantic.
