

A 2011 picture from a Chinese air show of a model of a Chinese "Pterodactyl" drone. (William Wan/The Washington Post)

A report in China's state media earlier this week revealed that China had successfully tested a new "home-made laser defense system" capable of shooting down drones. Xinhua news agency cited the progress made by one of the country's leading scientific academies:

The machine is able to shoot down various small aircraft within a two-kilometer radius and can do so in five seconds after locating its target, said a statement released Sunday by the China Academy of Engineering Physics, one of the system's co-developers. Characterized by its speed, precision and low noise, the system is designed to destroy unmanned, small-scale drones flying within an altitude of 500-m and at a speed below 50m/s, it said.

The system will be probably transported or deployed on vehicles, an ideal scenario for policing the skies above cities and sensitive government or military installations. According to Xinhua, it had a 100 percent success rate in its trials, targeting and bringing down more than 30 test drones.

The increasing proliferation of various sorts of unmanned aerial vehicles means governments around the world are getting more and more worried about their use for purposes of espionage and covert surveillance. The U.S., with the aid of Boeing, is also testing a laser cannon that can "blast drones out of the sky." You can watch it in action below:

The development of this technology comes amid growing attention on the scale and capabilities of China's drone program. There's not much clear data about the size of the Chinese drone fleet, but most analysts believe that Beijing's military boasts the largest number of unmanned aerial vehicles behind that of the United States.

In 2011, around the time most observers switched on to China's developing drone industry, my colleague William Wan attended a high-profile aviation show where a number of Chinese-made drones were on display, including models of the "Wing-Loong," believed to an adaptation of the American Reaper drone, and "Pterodactyl," an equivalent to the American Predator drone.

"The Chinese are catching up quickly. This is something we know for sure,” an American defense analyst told The Washington Post at the time, referring to modest statements made by Chinese officials about the weakness of their domestic drone programs. “We should not take comfort in some perceived lags in sensors or satellites capabilities. Those are just a matter of time.”

In the intervening years, China's drone investments have deepened and its ambitions have widened in scope. A 96-page Pentagon report published earlier this year, claimed China's military spending in 2013 far exceeded Beijing's reported figure. It also voiced concerns about Beijing's push into drone development. Chinese efforts on this front, the report indicated, "combines unlimited resources with technological awareness that might allow China to match or even outpace U.S. spending on unmanned systems in the future."

Of greatest concern is China's ability to vie with the U.S. and its East Asian allies, where maritime disputes over islands in the South China Sea and the East China Sea are a seemingly permanent source of tension and provocation in the region. China's new capabilities present new challenges to the U.S. Navy, long the guarantor of stability in the Pacific.

Beyond questions of geopolitics, China's advances in drone technologies also mean the chances of dozens of other countries building up their own fleets is more likely, given the relative cheapness of Chinese drone technology compared to the costs of American drones. Governments like Pakistan, for example, are keen to acquire Chinese drones, while other nervous Asian powers like Japan and India also seek to boost their arsenals.

As drone technology proliferates, seemingly unchecked, those anti-drone lasers may become quite useful, after all.