Within Swarms
Why Drone Swarms Turn Lasers Into Queues
Lasers can be precise and lethal, but dense swarms expose the delay created by engaging one drone after another.
On this page
- Why laser engagements are usually serial
- How saturation attacks exploit dwell time
- Where lasers still fit after swarm thinning
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Introduction
Drone swarms expose a weakness that is easy to miss when watching laser weapon demonstrations. A high-energy laser may destroy a drone with remarkable precision, but it generally does so one target at a time. When dozens of inexpensive drones arrive together, the central challenge becomes throughput rather than lethality. The question is no longer whether a laser can kill a drone; it is whether it can kill enough drones before the swarm reaches its objective. This turns the engagement into a queueing problem in which every target consumes a portion of the defender’s limited time budget. That dynamic helps explain why discussions of counter-swarm defence increasingly compare lasers with wide-area microwave systems that can affect multiple drones within a single engagement window. [GAO]gao.govgao 23 106717Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons25 May 2023 — Millimeter wave weapons have a larger beam size than high energy lasers…
Why Laser Engagements Are Usually Serial
The popular image of a laser weapon suggests an instantaneous kill. In practice, most high-energy laser engagements require the beam to remain focused on a vulnerable point long enough to deposit sufficient energy and cause failure. This interval is known as dwell time. Depending on the target and conditions, the laser may need several seconds of stable tracking before the desired effect occurs. [Electronics For You]electronicsforu.comdirected energy weapons laser weaponsElectronics For YouDirected Energy Weapons: High-Energy Laser Weapons25 Jan 2017 — Unlike projectile weapons that instantly destroy the t…
That requirement creates a fundamentally serial process:
- Detect and identify a drone.
- Track it precisely.
- Maintain beam quality and aim.
- Hold the beam on target until damage accumulates.
- Shift to the next drone.
Even though the beam itself travels at the speed of light, the destructive effect does not occur instantaneously. Time spent defeating one drone cannot simultaneously be spent defeating another. Defence analyses have long noted that lasers generally engage one target at a time and may require several seconds of dwell before moving on. [Air and Space Power Centre]airpower.airforce.gov.auAir and Space Power Centre Directed Energy WeaponsAir and Space Power CentreDirected Energy Weapons - Air and Space Power CentreMarch 26, 2020 — Since a laser can attack only one target a…
The result is a practical limit on engagement rate. A laser system may be highly effective against isolated drones, rockets, or mortar rounds, yet still face a throughput ceiling when many threats appear together. Research examining directed-energy defence against unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms explicitly models how dwell time affects the probability of defeating an entire swarm before any surviving members reach their target. [Sage Journals]journals.sagepub.comSage JournalsEffect of dwell time, distance, and reflecting area on UAV…9 Jul 2025 — DEWs are an effective solution to the CUAS proble…
How Saturation Attacks Exploit Dwell Time
Dense swarms are designed to attack capacity rather than survivability. Individual drones may be inexpensive, expendable, and relatively fragile. Their value comes from arriving in numbers that force defenders into repeated engagement cycles.
A useful way to think about the problem is as a queue. Every incoming drone joins a line waiting for attention. If new threats enter the defended area faster than the laser can process and defeat them, the queue grows. Eventually some drones may reach their objective before the defender can engage them.
Several factors make the queue longer:
- Required dwell time: Each target consumes seconds of beam occupancy. [Electronics For You]electronicsforu.comdirected energy weapons laser weaponsElectronics For YouDirected Energy Weapons: High-Energy Laser Weapons25 Jan 2017 — Unlike projectile weapons that instantly destroy the t…
- Retargeting delays: The system must transition between targets, reacquire tracks, and stabilise the beam. [Office of Naval Research]onr.navy.milOffice of Naval ResearchCounter Directed Energy Weapons and High Energy LasersThe intent is to increase accuracy in all weather condition…
- Multiple approach axes: Swarms may arrive from different directions, increasing tracking complexity. [MDPI]mdpi.com2504 446XResearch on Target Allocation for Hard-Kill Swarm Anti-…by J Zong · 2024 · Cited by 3 — This paper conducts research on a mid–shor…
- Manoeuvring targets: If a drone breaks line of sight or forces tracking errors, the required dwell period can increase or even reset. [Laser Wars+2Naval Postgraduate School]laserwars.netLaser Wars How to Counter a Laser WeaponLaser WarsHow to Counter a Laser Weapon - by Jared Keller3 days ago — 3 days ago — Swarm tactics extend this principle by flooding the ad…
This is why saturation attacks are often described as an economics-of-time problem. A swarm does not need every drone to survive. It only needs enough drones to remain unengaged long enough to penetrate the defence. Studies and military assessments of swarm warfare repeatedly identify saturation as a central challenge because defensive systems possess finite engagement capacity. [MDPI]mdpi.com2504 446XResearch on Target Allocation for Hard-Kill Swarm Anti-…by J Zong · 2024 · Cited by 3 — This paper conducts research on a mid–shor…
The Difference Between Precision and Throughput
Laser advocates often highlight extraordinary accuracy, low cost per shot, and effectively unlimited ammunition so long as electrical power is available. Those advantages are real. However, ammunition and throughput are not the same thing.
A laser may have an enormous theoretical magazine because it does not fire physical rounds. Yet each engagement still consumes time. Some analysts have therefore argued that the operational constraint is not ammunition depletion but the finite number of engagement opportunities available during an attack. [Fast Company]fastcompany.comFast CompanyWhy the military is obsessed with the myth of the 'infinite…10 Mar 2026 — Laser weapons do not defeat targets by expending…
This distinction becomes important in swarm scenarios. Imagine a laser capable of reliably destroying drones. If it requires a few seconds of dwell per target, a large swarm can still generate a backlog. In effect, the defender possesses abundant energy but limited processing speed. The swarm exploits that processing limit.
The challenge is recognised in both military analysis and technology assessments. Government reviews of directed-energy weapons note that larger-beam microwave systems can affect multiple targets at once, whereas laser systems are typically single-target effectors. That difference directly affects how quickly a defence can reduce a dense swarm. [GAO]gao.govgao 23 106717Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons25 May 2023 — Millimeter wave weapons have a larger beam size than high energy lasers…
Why Swarms Favour Wide-Area Microwave Effects
The attraction of high-power microwave and radio-frequency weapons is not that they are necessarily more lethal to an individual drone. Their appeal is that they attack the queue itself.
Rather than concentrating energy on one structural point, microwave systems attempt to disrupt or damage electronics across a wider volume. If multiple drones occupy that volume, several may be affected during the same pulse or engagement sequence. Government and military descriptions of these systems repeatedly emphasise their ability to influence multiple targets because of their broader beam geometry. [GAO]gao.govgao 23 106717Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons25 May 2023 — Millimeter wave weapons have a larger beam size than high energy lasers…
Recent British Army trials illustrate the operational logic. The programme focused specifically on defeating drone swarms with radio-frequency directed-energy effects rather than engaging aircraft individually. Officials reported successful engagements against large numbers of drones during testing, highlighting the technology’s relevance to saturation attacks. [Defence Equipment & Support]des.mod.ukbritish army uses radio waves to down drone swarmsDefence Equipment & SupportBritish Army uses radio waves to down drone swarms17 Apr 2025 — RF DEW systems can defeat airborne targets at…
For swarm defence, reducing twenty drones to five may be more valuable than perfectly destroying one drone at a time. Wide-area effects can shrink the queue before precision weapons need to engage surviving threats.
Where Lasers Still Fit After Swarm Thinning
Recognising the queue problem does not make lasers obsolete. In fact, many defence concepts place lasers within a layered architecture precisely because of their strengths.
Once a swarm has been disrupted, dispersed, or reduced in size, lasers become far more effective. Their advantages include:
- Highly precise engagement with minimal collateral effects.
- Extremely low cost per shot compared with missile interceptors.
- Deep magazines limited primarily by power generation and thermal management.
- Strong performance against individual drones, rockets, and similar threats. [GAO+2RTX]gao.govDirected Energy Weapons DOD Should Focus on Transition…They can deliver destructive or disruptive effects to targets at the speed o…
Current counter-UAS concepts increasingly focus on combining sensors, electronic warfare, microwave systems, and lasers rather than relying on any single technology. In such architectures, wide-area effects can thin or disorganise a swarm, while lasers eliminate surviving targets that require precise engagement. [Lockheed Martin]lockheedmartin.comLockheed MartinC-UAS Challenge: Closing the Gap in Drone Swarm Defense5 Aug 2025 — The system is designed to quickly detect, track, ID an…
The key insight is that swarm defence is a throughput challenge. Lasers excel at precision destruction, but dense swarms transform that precision into a sequence of individual tasks. When enough drones arrive at once, the defender risks spending too much time in the queue. Wide-area microwave effects are attractive because they reduce the number of targets waiting in line, allowing lasers to operate in the role where they perform best. [Air and Space Power Centre+2GAO]airpower.airforce.gov.auAir and Space Power Centre Directed Energy WeaponsAir and Space Power CentreDirected Energy Weapons - Air and Space Power CentreMarch 26, 2020 — Since a laser can attack only one target a…
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Further Reading
Books and field guides related to Why Drone Swarms Turn Lasers Into Queues. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.
Army of None
Covers the swarm problem that turns one-at-a-time engagements into a throughput challenge.
The Kill Chain
Explains why future war depends on compressing detection-to-engagement timelines against mass threats.
Drone Warfare
Provides context for why multiple small drones stress serial engagement weapons such as lasers.
Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
Covers the swarm problem that turns one-at-a-time engagements into a throughput challenge.
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Endnotes
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Apollo High Energy Laser WeaponIts increased [laser power]({{ 'power-costs/' | relative_url }}) and reduced dwell time between engagements enable it to disable more than 20 UAS...
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