The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has claimed that the new truck-mounted Peresvet combat laser systems are already in service and deployed in the place of permanent stationing.
On 19 July, the Russian Defense Ministry has released a new video showing some of newest Russian combat laser systems.
The video features a military unit, operating at least two truck-mounted Peresvet combat laser systems, accompanied by several command and support vehicles. When deployed, the complex unfolds and exposes a cannon-like device, which is presumably the laser system.
The exact purpose of the complex is still kept secret. It might be a jamming system, which can “blind” the optical electronic equipment of enemy vehicles with a laser beam, since several prototypes of such systems have been developed by the Soviet Union.
Early, ex Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that the “combat laser systems” Putin spoke of in his State of the Nation speech in March were in fact delivered to the country’s armed forces last year. Once found only in works of fiction, Borisov said such devices were now a very real and necessary tool of modern warfare.
“We can talk a lot about laser weapons and movies were made about them a long time ago and fantastic books have been written, and everyone knows about this. But the fact that these systems have started entering service is indeed today’s reality,” Borisov said in comments translated by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.