The UK’s LDEW capability is advanced and progressing well towards boosting our future Armed Forces capabilities.
DragonFire could offer UK Defence significant operational advantage by delivering enhanced air defence capabilities to the frontline, while reducing expendable ammunition costs and reducing risks of collateral damage.
This joint endeavour by Dstl and industry is another example of UK Defence spearheading future technology that can make our Armed Forces more effective and agile.
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) – along with its Defence industry partners MBDA, Leonardo and Qinetiq – is publishing ‘never seen before’ declassified footage of the DragonFire Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) system, in action over the skies of the Hebrides.
The footage contains declassified footage captured at DragonFire’s most recent trial in Scotland and shows operation of DragonFire from inside the control room to impressive footage of DragonFire targeting and firing on undisclosed targets.
Included is an animated video showing a sample scenario of DragonFire’s possible use in a maritime environment.
The DragonFire Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) system has proven itself in testing and has the very real potential for it to transform the UK’s Defence capability.
Demonstrating the potential of LDEW, DragonFire can provide a credible sovereign UK capability to meet the UK defence needs. LDEW offers a number of significant benefits, including reduced logistic, cost burden and collateral damage in operations.
The ecosystem of science and technology required to develop DragonFire would not be possible without the world-leading expertise of MBDA, QinetiQ, and Leonardo, and the ‘best of UK industry’ partnership they have created.
Through the UK DragonFire programme, Dstl, MBDA, QinetiQ, and Leonardo are providing a significant step change in UK’s capability in High Energy Laser Weapon Systems. The programme has developed and matured the key technologies needed.
It should not be underestimated the challenges that need to be overcome to be able to put many kW’s of energy onto a target with millimetric precision, over distances measure in kilometres. The expertise in the UK, distributed across government, industry and academia, has helped achieve this.
DragonFire is demonstrating the ‘art of the possible’ and focus is now increasingly on how to use the technology, rather than just its development, with the goal of understanding how LDEW can be used both safely and effectively.
