TL;DR
Lasers that knock drones out of the sky are real, and the hardest question about them at home has never been the beam. It has been the airliners. A laser fired near a busy airport is only useful if it can work without grounding everyone else's flights, and earlier this year it did not: the FAA briefly closed El Paso airspace after a counter-drone laser was used near Fort Bliss without coordination. On Nov. 9 five federal departments signed an agreement that gives the FAA a formal review of every new drone-stopping system, lasers included, so it can be checked for safety before it goes up alongside civilian aircraft. That is the paperwork that turns laser drone defense from a test-range novelty into something that can quietly guard borders, bases and other sites at home while planes keep flying overhead. A day later, a Texas robotics company that already builds an autonomous anti-drone gun turret said it is starting a laser division. Our odds that the FAA publicly clears a counter-drone laser to work near airliners are 60% by 2027. To see the full odds and the timeline of breakthroughs that leads to lasers guarding the skies at home, subscribe.
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