Military

Britain's Dragonfire laser weapon engages first aerial targets

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Dragonfire engaging target
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Dragonfire engaging target
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Artist's concept of Dragonfire on a frigate
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The Dragonfire laser turret
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Britain has fired its Dragonfire high-powered laser weapon at aerial targets for the first time. The test of the Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) on the Ministry of Defence's Hebrides Range was designed to demonstrate its power and accuracy.

Recent real world events have shown that there is a definite use for laser weapons on the modern battlefield. While modern missiles can take out aerial threats with great effectiveness, as shown in Ukraine, Israel, and the Red Sea, there is a problem with using a finite stockpile of missiles costing millions of dollars each to knock out drones and rockets costing only thousands.

Lasers have a number of advantages. Each 'shot' travels at the speed of light over very long ranges and a laser weapon can engage multiple targets simultaneously. They can also strike with extreme precision and at a remarkably low cost per round.

The British government isn't saying much about Dragonfire, though some things are known. It's a solid-state laser weapon in the 50-kW range based on doped glass fiber bundles running into a British-designed beam-combining system that's still very much on the classified list. Mounted in a turret, there's also an electro-optical camera and a secondary laser for target acquisition and beam focusing.

The Dragonfire laser turret
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Dragonfire's range is classified as well, though the government does say that it has demonstrated its ability to track and counter aerial threats. The weapon has the precision to hit a £1 coin (23 mm/0.9 in diameter) at a kilometer (0.6 miles) and that the cost per shot is about £10 (US$13). Under development at a cost of £100 million (US$127 million) by a team led by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for the Ministry of Defence, it is being considered for service with the British Army and the Royal Navy.

"This type of cutting-edge weaponry has the potential to revolutionize the battle-space by reducing the reliance on expensive ammunition, while also lowering the risk of collateral damage," said Defence Secretary, Grant Shapp. "Investments with industry partners in advanced technologies like DragonFire are crucial in a highly contested world, helping us maintain the battle-winning edge and keep the nation safe."

Source: UK Government

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12 comments
Graeme S
reminds of the opening scenes in the terminator, and we know what then happens, maybe it simply is inevitable, man against machines
vince
Mirror mirror on the wall whose the best to block the laser light? Well, I am of course.
WONKY KLERKY
As/previous:
I shot my laser in the air,
It missed/went straight through,
To . . . ......
I know not where - ? ? ? ? ? ?
Stuart White
'The weapon has the precision to hit a £1 (US$1.27) coin at a kilometer (0.6 miles)'. While admirable, providing equivalent units can become silly. The £1 coin was provided as an example of the size of a target, not its value. The American equivalent would be a quarter dollar.
MartyKinn
They must have CG added the beam or taken the photo with infrared because a laser beam is invisible until it interacts with particles. And from the jagged look of the beam in that photo, it looks added
Ancliff
Clearly given what going on at the moment with attacks on shipping we need this operational yesterday.
michael_dowling
50 kw is in the anemic range for laser power these days. 150 kw and up are what the competitors are using.
CraigAllenCorson
How do the Brits manage to develop such a system for a measly $127 million, when it would cost the USA at least $3-4 BILLION???
Dziks
Precise and "clean" defense system. But how does it work in the fog? I really wonder how the power drops in FOGGY weather or when the SMOKE grenades are deployed.
spyinthesky
Michael this is a prototype. The previous ground based proof of concept were reported as showing the system is ‘scalable’. These tests are there to show it can locate, track and strike moving targets which seem to have been successful. The next step once they are totally confident in that is to upscale its power as the present set up would only be truly usable against incoming drones though as we have seen that ability alone will be exceptionally useful. How far beyond that with power enhancements will be the next and more testing steps this is how development progresses not going for an ultra powerful system to start with. By the way some of the RR supported power generation tech is also being tested for US systems as was reported here last year.