When is a laser weapon not a weapon? When it’s the ASELSAN YILDIRIM 100 Directed Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) System that doesn’t actually destroy incoming infrared missiles, but instead blinds them before they have a chance to lock on target.
When discussing military hardware, the temptation is to focus on the things that go “boom.” However, a surprisingly large proportion is made to defend against boom or prevent boom altogether. That’s the rationale behind stealth technology and missile countermeasures, which have become increasingly sophisticated over the years.
Modern missiles fired against aircraft aren’t dumb projectiles that you fire and hope you’ve pointed in the right direction. They are extremely advanced vehicles filled with systems that allow them to locate targets, identify them, lock on, calculate an intercept course, and home in on – even if the target tries evasive maneuvers.
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By the same token, military, and many civilian, aircraft, carry equally sophisticated countermeasures to evade and foil these smart missiles. These can include stealth systems that make it harder to detect the aircraft or to properly identify it, flares and other decoys to cause a missile to go off course, and more aggressive countermeasures to neutralize or destroy the missile.
The latter is the function of the Turkish YILDIRIM 100 that uses lasers to knock out hostile missiles. No, it isn’t like its flashy cousins that blast aircraft away using high-powered beams to burn off wings and destroy electronics. Instead, it’s a twin-turret laser weapon that can cover the entire sky around the aircraft, seeking out incoming missiles that use infrared seekers to lock onto the target’s heat signature.
The idea is that once the missile has been sighted, the laser counters it with a multi-spectral infrared laser that’s powerful enough to dazzle and even destroy the missile’s sensors. The concept isn’t new. The Royal Navy used dazzle lasers during the Falklands War, but instead of a human operator shining a laser at a human pilot to ruin his attack run, YILDIRIM 100 is one automatic system designed to take on another automatic system.
According to the company, the YILDIRIM 100 can be used against a wide variety of missiles and can handle multiple targets simultaneously. In addition, it can be retrofitted to many fixed-wing and rotorcraft, and it’s compatible with many infrared and ultraviolet missile warning systems.
On July 4, 2025, the YILDIRIM 100 intercepted and neutralized a number of infrared missiles during a live-fire exercise, and a high-power YILDIRIM 300 system is in the works that can operate at speeds fast enough to make it suitable for installation on fighter aircraft.
“With the successful test of YILDIRIM 100, we take great pride in advancing [Turkey’s] air defense capabilities to the level of the world’s leading nations,” said ASELSAN President & CEO Ahmet Akyol. “As we celebrate ASELSAN’s 50th anniversary, this achievement reflects the strength of our indigenous technological excellence and our unwavering commitment to innovation. We will continue to develop game-changing systems that meet the evolving requirements of the modern battlefield.”
Source: ASELSAN