LONDON – A high-powered laser weapon under development in the UK just shot down its first drones — putting the futuristic device a major step closer to the battlefield.
The background:Laser weapons — powerful, destructive beams of light — are arguably the “next big thing” in defense tech, thanks to their numerous benefits over traditional kinetic energy weapons, like missiles or guns.
Even though laser weapons cost a lot to develop, their per-shot cost can be as low as $1 — a single missile can carry a price tag of more than $1 million. Because a laser weapon doesn’t have physical projectiles, there’s never a worry about running out of ammo, either — it can fire as long as it has an energy source.
The beam of a laser weapon moves at the speed of light, too, so there’s almost no delay between when it’s fired and when it reaches its target — that makes it easier to hit moving targets, like drones or incoming missiles, than if you were using a kinetic energy weapon.
What’s new? In 2017, the UK military began developing DragonFire, its first high-powered, long-range laser weapon, and on January 19, it demonstrated the device’s ability to down aerial drones for the first time.
“Capable of being fitted to future warships, [DragonFire] will be a vital British weapon as the threat of drone warfare grows,” tweeted Grant Shapps, the UK’s secretary of state for defense, after the demonstration.
