Electronic weaponry that will change the face of war has been unveiled at the government’s defence laboratories, including a deadly laser ray that could down drones in Ukraine and over the Red Sea.
The DragonFire laser gun is expected in service with the Navy’s frigate and destroyers in 2027.
Visiting the DSTL laboratories at Porton Down on Thursday, the defence secretary Grant Shapps 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 Shapps, of other countries, including America, China, Iran and Turkey now believed to be working on similar direct energy laser weapons.
The death rays of science fiction are becoming fact. DragonFire can fire a laser beam to take out a pound coin at several thousand yards. They can stop drones and missiles in a single strike, which costs around £10 a shot.
“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.”
In a new collaboration between government labs, and the defence contractors MBDA and Leonardo – and the armed services, a lot of the wasteful rituals of the old procurement system is being cut.
A protoype DragonFire will be with the Navy and 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 DSTL scientist. “It could even be used to stop the motors of small attack boats in the Red Sea.”
The new direct energy weapons to take down a missile, a drone or even attack formations of ground troops and their vehicles are about to enter the battle space in Ukraine, the Gulf and Red Sea and beyond.
Nobody presenting the DragonFire and RFG (Radio Frequency) weapons at Porton raised the nightmare of this technology in the hands of terrorist groups.
