Russia could arm its latest multi-role fighter jet with laser weaponry, reports The National Interest. In a conference call with Russian President Vladmir Putin, Yuri Slusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, extolled the MiG-35's virtues and stated the new fighter jet could support this weapons technology.

The MiG-35 is an upgrade of the 1980s-era MiG-29 "Fulcrum" multi-role fighter. According to Slusar, the MiG-35 was designed for "high-intensity conflict and dense air defenfe conditions." Slusar says the fighter has an all-new defense system, and its radar signature has been reduced several times over. It now has eight hardpoints for weapons, sensors, and fuel tanks, and its overall range has been doubled. Its radar can track up to 30 targets at once.

MiG-35 fighter. MARINA LYSTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images.

As a revamp of an older design, one not designed from the ground up for stealth, the MiG-35 is described as a "4++ generation fighter" and not a 5th generation fighter like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Russia plans to procure 170 of the new jets, starting in 2018, while Egypt has 50 on order.

Laser is an acronym that stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." In the case of war, lasers can be used to blind optical sensors—including the human eye—or to destroy objects by heating them up to burning (or exploding) temperatures.

Russia is the latest country to consider placing weaponized lasers on fighter planes, an increasingly viable trend as lasers become smaller and more lightweight. The nation has had a long interest in laser weapons dating back to the days of the Soviet Union.

In the late 2000s, Russia was developing the Sokol Eshelon , a laser mounted on a heavy lift aircraft designed to blind satellites in orbit. Recent gains in solid state lasers have dramatically shrunk the size of lasers to the point where the U.S. Air Force is pushing to add them to the flying arsenal of AC-130 gunships , and defense contractor Lockheed Martin is weighing the idea of putting them on the F-35 .

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