Aerospace giant Boeing held a media demonstration of its Compact Laser Weapons System this week in Albuquerque, N.M. It is created to target unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying aircraft, and artillery rounds.

Boeing publicly tested the laser cannon in a New Mexico industrial park on Wednesday and called the new weapon a game changer as it’s portable, silent, invisible and precise.

“Think of it like a welding torch being put on target but from many hundreds of meters away”, Boeing engineer Isaac Neil said in a Boeing video introducing the weapon.

A sophisticated tracking system allows the laser to lock on to small targets. With its low cost to fire (laser beams are virtually free compared to traditional ammunition) and low need for maintenance (there are hardly any moving parts), it laser like this would be great for taking down spy drones out in the field. “There will be times where it makes sense to use a missile and there will be times where it makes sense to use a laser”, Boeing’s lasers and optical systems director David DeYoung told Wired.

The system demonstrated this week, equipped with a two kilowatt laser, is the smallest that Boeing is developing – when fully set up, it looks to be about the size of a large microwave oven perched sideways on a heavy-duty tripod. The system is being tested by US Special Operations and can be operated by from eight to a dozen Marines. They can also carry weapons such as guns or smuggle illegal goods such as drugs.

Other weapons manufacturers have developed anti-drone shotgun shells and jamming technology, but Boeing plans to just zap the enemy out of the sky.