South Korean Army watches Hanwha lasers shoot down all three target drones in live demo

Two Hanwha Systems laser weapons shot down all three target drones during a live-fire South Korean Army demonstration on 14 October 2026, the company said, as Seoul's defence industry pushes directed-energy air defence to export customers. The event took place at a training ground in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, during the Army TIGER+ future warfare integrated combat exercise run by Army Headquarters.

The fixed Cheongwang laser air defence weapon and a 30-kilowatt-class laser mounted on a combat vehicle both took part. About 500 people watched, among them Army Chief of Staff Gen. Kim Kyu-ha, military officials, academics and industry experts, according to Hanwha. The laser shots were one layer of a wider counter-drone show that also featured electronic jamming and a K21 armoured vehicle engaging incoming drones.

Hanwha did not say which system destroyed which drone, what types of drones served as targets, which vehicle carries the newer laser or how far either weapon can reach. The Herald Business reported that the Army TIGER+ exercise is meant to sharpen troops' ability to fight on future battlefields with advanced combat assets.

Cheongwang, whose name means light of the sky, is formally the Laser Air Defense Weapon Block-I. The Agency for Defense Development led the programme and Hanwha Systems built the prototype. South Korea first fielded it in December 2024, and Hanwha calls it the first laser weapon anywhere to be operationally deployed. Around five units guarded major government sites, including the defence ministry building, as of June.

The selling point is cost. Hanwha puts each shot at about 2,000 won, roughly $1.50, and says the weapon needs no ammunition resupply and can keep firing for as long as it has electrical power. That compares with missile interceptors that can cost far more than the cheap surveillance and attack drones they are fired at.

Earlier public demonstrations were less tidy. At the 78th Armed Forces Day ceremony in Gyeryong on 1 October, one of two target drones crashed on take-off after gusts damaged its fibre-optic cable, and in a second run a drone that strayed outside the safety zone was brought down by cutting its power rather than by the laser. In September, at the 2026 Defense Drone Technology Exhibition, Cheongwang downed four drones and two larger uncrewed aircraft in succession, Hanwha said.

The threat behind the programme is familiar to Seoul. In December 2022 five North Korean drones crossed the border and one reached the capital, and fighter jets, attack helicopters and warning shots failed to bring any of them down. South Korea's 2027 defence budget proposal includes money to start research on a mobile Block-II version of Cheongwang.

Hanwha is also developing a 50-kilowatt laser armoured vehicle for export, which a company manager said would enter production by the end of 2027, and says it is in talks with potential buyers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For Taiwan, which is weighing how to defend bases and cities against massed low-cost drones from across the Strait, a fielded laser with a per-shot cost measured in dollars is a regional benchmark worth tracking, though Hanwha's selective disclosures leave range and reliability questions open.