“…Following the lead of the U.S. Navy, the French Navy will soon begin testing a laser-based anti-drone system for point defense, which would give it a new option for keeping its maritime assets safe from low-cost, explosives-laden drones and small craft. Armed or bomb-laden drones are ubiquitous in modern combat, and drone surface craft have played a prominent role in at least one ongoing conflict, the Yemeni Civil War. French defense company CILAS has come up with one way to counteract these threats. Its HELMA-P laser platform can track drones in flight and shoot them down with a small two-kilowatt laser. It can be operated by a single user, and it has an effective range of about half a nautical mile, roughly on par with a standard Phalanx Close-In Weapons System. Despite its capabilities, it is small enough to fit handily into a shipping container for easy transport…”