Significance To counter asymmetric threats including drone swarms and low-altitude missiles and enhance helicopters' low-altitude combat and self-defense capabilities, this paper systematically investigates the key technologies and development trends of helicopter-borne laser directed energy systems. It comprehensively sorts out domestic and international research progress, elaborates basic damage mechanisms and integrated mounting modes, proposes a feasible system architecture for the wing-mounted external pod scheme, and clarifies the cross-linking logic between subsystems and the helicopter platform. Focusing on four typical scenarios — counter-unmanned aerial vehicle operations, short-range air defense, special operations, and platform self-defense — it analyzes operational procedures, combat advantages and practical limitations, extracts core technical challenges, and prospects future development directions, providing theoretical references for the R&D, technical tackling, operational application and system construction of helicopter-borne laser directed energy equipment.

Progress Internationally, the United States leads the technical verification process: it completed the first helicopter-borne high-energy laser directed energy firing test on the AH-64 attack helicopter in 2017, validated maritime anti-drone and short-range air defense capability on the MH-60S platform, and has incorporated helicopter-borne laser directed energy systems into its army six-layer air defense system, with a plan to complete field-level system qualification by 2030. Israel signed a development contract for a dedicated helicopter-borne high-power laser directed energy system in March 2026, and its mature lightweight interceptors are adaptable to light helicopters. Russia, Germany, India, and the UK have also conducted relevant technical verification and engineering research on fiber laser miniaturization and platform adaptation.

Domestic research started relatively late, but has achieved independent breakthroughs in core fields including high-power fiber lasers, high-precision tracking and pointing, and efficient thermal management, with core device performance reaching the international advanced level. In October 2025, China completed live airborne tests of fixed-wing airborne laser directed energy systems, verifying full-process closed-loop combat capability. For helicopter platforms, multiple adaptation schemes such as pod-type and built-in retractable turret have been developed, and tactical laser directed energy pods for 5 km-range drone interception have finished ground firing tests. Overall, there remains a gap in engineering maturity and platform environmental adaptability compared with foreign advanced levels.

Helicopter-borne laser directed energy systems disable targets via three damage mechanisms: thermal ablation, spallation and photoelectric blinding, and can adopt continuous-wave or pulse laser output modes according to mission requirements. Two mainstream integration schemes are available: wing-mounted external pods and built-in retractable turrets. The wing-mounted pod scheme requires no major structural modification and supports rapid deployment, making it more suitable for counter-drone missions. Taking the wing-mounted pod scheme as the research object, the system consists of seven subsystems: command and control, tracking and pointing, high-energy laser, beam control, power management, thermal management, and auxiliary subsystems. The command and control system serves as the core decision-making hub for human-machine interaction and coordinated control. The tracking and pointing system fulfills target detection, precision tracking and aiming calculation. The high-energy laser system converts electrical energy into stable and adjustable high-power laser output. The beam control system performs beam shaping, stabilization and atmospheric compensation; notably, cross-scale vector optical field regulation technology can actively compensate for thermal blooming effects and improve far-field power density without increasing laser power. The power management system adopts energy storage modules to smooth peak power fluctuations and avoid impacts on core helicopter systems. The thermal management system precisely controls optical component temperature and discharges waste heat out of the aircraft. Information interaction and power supply between the directed energy system and the helicopter are realized through data buses and expanded power distribution branches.

Four typical operational scenarios are applicable. 1) Counter-drone and swarm interception: it achieves hard damage to low-speed small drones within 5 km and soft blinding of photoelectric sensors within 10 km, with a single-target response time of less than 2 s, to build mobile short-range air defense barriers. 2) Short-range air defense: it rapidly intercepts low-altitude cruise missiles and other incoming munitions to protect ground forces and forward positions. 3) Special operations: it delivers silent, low-collateral precision strikes for photoelectric interference and light target neutralization. 4) Platform self-defense: it interferes with or damages incoming missile guidance systems 1–2 s before impact, significantly improving helicopter survivability. The standard operational flow includes five core links, forming a complete combat closed loop. Compared with traditional weapons, helicopter-borne laser directed energy systems have prominent advantages in cost-effectiveness, response speed, strike precision and logistics support, but are limited by adverse weather, line-of-sight constraints and insufficient hard-kill capability against heavy armored targets.

Four core technical challenges restrict engineering application. 1) High-precision tracking and pointing under flight vibration: continuous rotor vibration and airflow disturbance impair beam stability, requiring a coarse-fine composite tracking architecture and high-bandwidth fast steering mirrors to achieve micro-radian pointing accuracy. 2) High-quality beam control in complex low-altitude atmospheric environments: it is necessary to comprehensively suppress beam divergence caused by atmospheric turbulence and thermal effects through adaptive optical correction and vectorial light field adjustment. 3) High power-to-weight ratio laser technology: helicopter platforms have strict volume and weight constraints, and current laser power-to-weight ratios still cannot meet the operational requirement of better than 5 kg/kW. 4) Efficient energy and thermal management: the system has large instantaneous power consumption and low electro-optical conversion efficiency, making it necessary to build compact energy storage and heat dissipation schemes in narrow cabin space.

Conclusions and Prospects Looking ahead, helicopter-borne laser directed energy systems will develop toward practicality, intelligence and systematization, with four core trends: power upgrading and miniaturization to reach the 100 kW level, continuous-pulse combined laser technology to improve comprehensive damage efficiency, intelligent algorithms for adaptive atmospheric compensation and autonomous multi-target engagement, and unmanned and systematic integration into joint air defense systems. Risks such as platform constraint conflicts and information security should be addressed through phased iterative verification, to promote the equipment from technical verification to battlefield application and improve modern low-altitude combat systems.