Radiative effects of the laser-induced ablative plasma on the heating and ablation dynamics of materials irradiated by nanosecond laser pulses are studied by the example of graphite ablation. On the basis of combined thermal and gas dynamic modeling, the laser-induced plasma plume is shown to be a controlling factor responsible for ultradeep laser drilling due to plasma radiation, both bremsstrahlung and recombinative. We demonstrate that plasma radiative heating of the target considerably deepens the molten layer, thus explaining the observed crater depths. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.