The UK has unveiled a first-of-its-kind ‘advanced future military laser’ which can engage with targets over long ranges with high accuracy.
The laser is the result of a £100 million ($127 million) joint investment between the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and industry partners MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ.
It is a laser-directed energy weapon (LDEW) system and was successfully tested out at the MOD’s Hebrides Range in Scotland.
You can see it in action in a newly declassified video which shows the laser being tested in the Hebrides on ‘above the horizon’ targets, including a Banshee target drone:
How the UK’s laser weapon works
The laser – named DragonFire – is the UK’s ‘first high-power firing of a laser weapon against aerial targets’.
This means it can deliver a high-power laser beam over ‘long ranges’ engaging with targets ‘at the speed of light’ using ‘an intense beam of light to cut through the target, leading to structural failure or more impactful results if the warhead is targeted’.
The UK government’s website states: “The precision required is equivalent to hitting a £1 coin from a kilometer [over half a mile] away.
“The range of DragonFire is classified, but it is a line-of-sight weapon and can engage with any visible target.”
And it can track ‘moving air and sea targets’ with this accuracy too, having ‘taken down mortar shells […] other targets in tests,’ Dstl reports.
Dstl’s Ben Madisson adds, as per Forces.net: “Drones are a really good example of the kinds of target that a laser weapon would be very effective against, and certainly in our demonstrations, drones are one of the targets that we’ve successfully engaged on a number of occasions at really useful ranges.”
Why the UK is developing the DragonFire laser weapon
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement the ‘cutting-edge weaponry has the potential to revolutionise the battlespace’ by ‘reducing the reliance on expensive ammunition’ as well as ‘lowering the risk of collateral damage’.
The laser is also much more cost efficient than other weapons, with it costing the ‘equivalent of using a regular heater for just an hour’ to fire it ‘for 10 seconds’.
DragonFire subsequently has the ‘potential to be a long-term low-cost alternative to certain tasks missiles currently carry out’.
The government notes: “The cost of operating the laser is typically less than £10 ($12.79) per shot.”
Forces.net reports the technology could be used in the Armed Forces within the next five years.
