New UK laser could be cheaper gamechanger in Ukraine and the Red Sea
ELECTRONIC weaponry, including a new British military laser that could down drones in Ukraine and over the Red Sea, could have “huge ramifications”, the Defence Secretary has said.
The DragonFire laser gun, expected to be in service with the Navy’s frigates and destroyers in 2027, was among the weaponry unveiled at the Government’s defence laboratories at Porton Down in Salisbury yesterday.
Visiting the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Grant Shapps said he would like the system to be brought in even earlier.
“These weapons have huge ramifications,” he told reporters, “and I want to cut the usual, and very lengthy, procurement cycle.”
Britain is thought to be “genuinely years ahead”, according to Mr Shapps, of other countries, including the US, China, Iran and Turkey, now believed to be working on similar direct energy laser weapons.
These use an intense light beam to cut through their target and can strike at the speed of light.
The MoD hopes the DragonFire system, which costs around £10 a shot, will offer a low-cost alternative to missiles by carrying out tasks such as shooting down attack drones.
“This would reverse the bizarre asymmetry of what we are seeing now over the Red Sea,” said Mr Shapps, “where cheap drones of the Houthis are being downed by missiles costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.”
The laser weaponry has been developed by defence firms MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
A new procurement model, which comes into effect this week, is aimed at speeding up the process of getting cutting-edge developments in military capability like DragonFire out into the field. Two new Radio Frequency direct energy weapons are being deployed with two sets of Army vehicles belonging to 7 Air Defence Regiment this summer. The Radio Frequency weapons emit electronic pulse systems that can stop a missile and any electrically-driven weapon in an instant.
“It could take down the electrical system of a small town,” said a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory scientist. “It could even... stop the motors of small attack boats in the Red Sea.”
However, nobody presenting the weapons at Porton Down raised the nightmare of this technology in the hands of terrorist groups.