Lindsay W via luv-talk wrote:
Unlike normal weapons its relatively easy to develop excellent shielding systems to any light driven weapon systems simply using reflective material.
The other active defense I've seen against proposed in-atmosphere DEWs is simply to spray a mist of water into the air. :-) (That's for ships, rather than individual soldiers; water is heavy.) I couldn't find a cite for it, but I did find this one: There are reports that the Terra-3 complex at Sary Shagan was used on several occasions to temporarily "blind" US spy satellites in the IR range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_energy_weapons#Alleged_tracking_of_Sp... So at least the Russians have uses lasers to shoot the eyes out of something moving much faster than a mere fighter jet ;-P