Could This New Rifle-Mounted Drone Buster Be a Game Changer?

Every new military technology, every new weapon, sooner or later, was countered by some other new weapon or technology. Armor was rendered obsolete by the musket. Castle walls were rendered obsolete by cannons. Battleships were rendered obsolete by aircraft carriers.

Today, drones are one piece of new tech that military forces around the world are still learning how to employ, and how to defend against. And now, there's a new counter: A rifle-mounted drone-killer device.

A new chapter in counter-drone defense begins as Nuburu’s Lyocon subsidiary completes initial trials of a next-gen, portable non-kinetic laser system built to hunt drones in contested airspace.
Designed for rapid deployment, the lightweight weapon can be mounted on rifles, letting soldiers carry and aim it with minimal effort in the field.
It leverages a multi-wavelength directed-energy setup and operates across green, blue, and infrared laser bands to disrupt a wide range of drone types.

Now, to me, this doesn't look like something that could be slung under the barrel of an M4 or M16, like the M203 grenade launcher.

Dronebuster! pic.twitter.com/JD715I02d6
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) March 11, 2026

But it is small enough to be easily man-portable, especially when you consider that these likely will be issued at platoon or, at most, at the squad level.

Its versatility is supported by scalable optical power, from 1 to 10 watts, paired with advanced beam control that allows operators to precisely direct energy at targets.
Adjustable beam divergence ensures effectiveness at short and long ranges, while dynamic beam regulation and precision collimation keep the laser focused and reliable in changing conditions.
“Counter-drone protection has become one of the most urgent priorities for defense forces,” Nuburu Chief Executive Officer Dario Barisoni said, adding that the new system is capable of safeguarding personnel, vehicles, and critical infrastructure from evolving drone threats.

Probably no substitute for a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range, but we can't have everything.

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Drones are definitely part of the modern battlespace. It was a delight to see that the drones we are launching en masse at Iranian positions were reverse-engineered from Iranian drones, which were reverse-engineered, as I recall, from a Russian design. There's nothing quite as satisfying as taking the enemy's stuff, improving it, and sending it back at them. That's a special kind of "screw you" to the bad guys.

Of course, sooner or later, something along the lines of a hardened drone will appear that's resistant to this laser system. Then someone will build a tougher, harder-hitting laser system, and around and around we go. That's why they call this kind of thing an "arms race."

For the time being, though, if this works as advertised, it may be the ideal counter to suicide drones: Man-portable, deployable to the grunts in the field. There's nothing grunts like more, after all, than shooting stuff, and shooting stuff with a laser, that's a whole new level of cool.

Personally, I think a regular old shotgun would work pretty well against most civilian drones. But military ones? Something like this might be just what the doctor ordered for the grunts in the field contending with enemy drones.

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