China's Laser Technical and the Emerging Directed Energy Arms Trade
A pickup truck-mounted laser weapon at a Pakistani arms expo offers a glimpse into an nascent arms market.
It was only a matter of time.
At this year’s Pakistan International Maritime Expo & Conference (PIMEC) in Karachi, an unidentified Chinese defense contractor showcased a concept for what can best be described as a laser technical — a high-energy laser weapon mounted to the bed of what appears to be a common four-door pickup truck.
Billed as a “fixed laser anti-drone system,” the 3 kilowatt laser weapon appears to resemble the Chinese-made “Silent Hunter” system and is purportedly capable of taking out small drones at ranges of up to 1 kilometer, according to a product sheet shown in the single image of the concept currently circulating on social media. The concept appears to have been produced by a Chinese defense company: the product sheet includes a business card featuring a sales manager’s name in both English and Chinese, an address in China’s Chongqing municipality, and an unrecognizable corporate logo. (If the logo in question looks familiar to you, let me know.)
That an exquisite high-tech weapon system ended up strapped to the back of a standard pickup truck is unsurprising. Technicals (or “nonstandard tactical vehicles,” if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) have been a fixture of the modern conflicts since the advent of the automobile, although the concept is today most often associated with the Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser trucks that dominated the Chadian–Libyan “Toyota War” in the 1980s. From the French Navy officer in Tahiti who in 1914 tore 37mm cannons off a warship and mounted them on Ford trucks to face off against a German cruiser to the Chechen warlord who integrated Soviet-era DShK 12.7x108mm heavy machine guns into a Tesla Cybertruck, the technical was battlefield ingenuity at its finest even before someone slapped a laser weapon on one.
The logic of the laser technical is simple: rugged and reliable lightweight vehicles (like the US Army’s M1301 Infantry Squad Vehicle) offer superior mobility and maneuverability compared to their armored cousins like the Stryker. Mounting a relatively compact directed energy system on a nimble 4x4 creates a potentially effective system that’s especially valuable in asymmetric conflicts where agility matters as much as armor against drone threats circling overhead.
But the most interesting thing about the laser technical isn’t the laser weapon itself, but what it represents. Laser weapons aren’t just hitting the battlefield — they’re hitting the market, too.
While international defense expos are prime venues for military vaporware, the prospect of Pakistan acquiring a Chinese-made laser weapon is not outside the realm of possibility. The South China Morning Post reported in late September that the country’s military “would love to see some integration” with China’s nascent directed energy arsenal, according to retired Pakistan Navy Vice Adm. Ahmed Saeed. Islamabad was already responsible for 63 percent of Beijing’s arms exports between 2020 and 2024, according to a recent report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and adding directed energy weapons to that steady stream of fighter jets, naval vessels, missiles, and air defense systems is a logical next step. Indeed, the May clashes between India and Pakistan — defined, like virtually every other modern conflict, by low-cost weaponized drones — have heightened demand for additional air defense systems for both longtime adversaries.
Pakistan wouldn’t be the first recipient of a Chinese-made laser weapon. The week before Vice Adm. Saeed revealed Islamabad’s interest in Beijing’s directed energy offerings, Belarus unveiled its “Shafran” laser weapon during the Zapad 2025 joint military drills with Russia, which defense observers immediately identified as a refurbished version of the Silent Hunter system. Meanwhile, variants of Silent Hunter have popped up in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran in recent years. Despite mixed reviews of Silent Hunter’s operational effectiveness in desert environments, performance may be less important than optics: for Minsk, parading a “homegrown” laser alongside Russian forces at Zapad is clearly more about telegraphing technological relevance than actual military readiness — like, say, Ghana’s hilarious powered armor parade from a few years ago.
Like basically every arms deal in the history of mankind, the proliferation of Silent Hunter and its variants is about geopolitical power. China is willing to share prestige technology with strategic partners like Pakistan, Belarus, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran as a vehicle for deepening its regional influence. It’s also worth noting that, as Beijing pushes laser weapons into the export market, it is loudly condemning Japan’s plans to deploy its own laser systems for air defense as “breaching the constraints of its pacifist constitution.” The contradiction is striking: China is trying to shape the global narrative around lasers while simultaneously proliferating them, a strategy that Beijing effectively deployed with the drone market in 2010 before Turkey overtook the country as the world’s largest supplier a decade later.
If China’s laser weapon exports show how state-backed firms are driving proliferation, then the new contract between Australian company Electro Optical Systems (EOS) and the Netherlands for the former’s 100 kw “Apollo” laser weapon also marks a turning point for the commercial market. While the United States and China lead the world in military laser weapons development, the EOS contract indicates that demand is spreading beyond top-tier militaries to middle powers eager for cost-effective drone defenses. It also suggests that lasers are increasingly seen as marketable products that defense primes can sell alongside missile interceptors and radar systems rather than just boutique demonstrators.
With cheap and lethal drones increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for both national militaries and irregular forces alike, virtually every market research firm sees significant growth ahead for the global directed energy market as technological advances and operational successes validate the technology. States that face constant drone threats (in the Middle East and Africa, but also increasingly Europe and North America) and rely on million-dollar interceptors to counter them will become the earliest adopters out of tactical and economic necessity, but authoritarian regimes will likely also embrace lasers for parades and propaganda even if battlefield performance lags — “wonder weapons” to shock and awe adversaries.
As a result, laser weapons have the potential to become a new geopolitical flashpoint, a global revival of the US-Soviet “laser gap” anxiety that drove directed energy research forward during the Cold War. China’s sharp criticism of Japan’s modest laser deployment shows how even the perception of a credible laser capability can trigger diplomatic friction. As more countries parade lasers as part of their arsenals (whether functional or not), they will increasingly be used as political signals of technological sovereignty and deterrence.
Amid this increasing demand, state-backed firms like the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO) will likely push Chinese systems into markets where the US and its allies won’t sell while private companies like EOS will chase fresh buyers. Meanwhile, the US and European primes will eventually enter the market more openly once they have exportable systems ready. What began as a race for military advantage is slowly becoming an industrial competition, one that will determine who builds, sells, and ultimately defines the rules of engagement for the age of directed energy.
China’s laser technical concept may not end up going anywhere, let alone to Pakistan. But it doesn’t have to: its appearance alone captures the direction of the emerging laser arms trade. As technological advances position laser weapons to evolve into mass-market exports, the barriers to entry into the directed energy arms race are falling. The arms bazaar is as old as warfare itself — but instead of steel and gunpowder, the next one may just run on photons.
