The MOD’s Defence
Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has
hosted the UK’s first
high-powered, long range laser directed energy weapon
(LDEW) trial on
its ranges at Porton Down.
The trials involve firing the UK DragonFire demonstrator at a number of
targets over a number of ranges, demanding pinpoint accuracy from
the beam director.
These tests improve the UK’s
understanding of how high-energy lasers and their associated
technologies can operate over distance and defeat representative
targets. The ability to deliver high levels of laser power with
sufficient accuracy are two of the major areas that need to be
demonstrated in order to provide confidence in the performance
and viability of LDEWsystems.
The programme has developed a UK sovereign ‘centre of excellence’
staffed with experts from multiple fields. Laser directed energy
weapons have the potential to provide lower cost lethality,
reduced logistical burden and increased effectiveness when
compared to other weapon systems – the technology could have a
huge effect on the future of defence operations.
The programme’s specialist industry partners are:
- MBDA, with overall responsibility for the system; MBDA have
developed the advanced command and control (C2) and image
processing capabilities
- Leonardo, who have developed the beam director which can
track and point at targets with pin-point accuracy
- QinetiQ’s laser experts, who have built a phase-combined
laser capable of generating in the order of 50kW of power, with
the ability in the future to scale fire-power levels
Dstl’s
Technical Partner, Ben Maddison said:
This trial is the culmination of design, development and
demonstration activity over a number of years. DragonFire has
already successfully demonstrated an ability to track targets
with very high levels of precision and to maintain a laser beam
on the selected aim-point. This trial has assessed the
performance of the laser itself – the outcome shows that the
UK has world-leading
capability in the technologies associated with laser directed
energy weapons (LDEW) systems.
Chris Allam, UK Managing
Director and Executive Group Director of Engineering at MBDA
said:
These successful trials are the latest step in accelerating
delivery of a UKsovereign
laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) capability. MBDA,
Leonardo, QinetiQ and Dstl all
working together are putting the UK at the forefront of research and
technology in laser domain. The results from these trials have
verified analysis and given the team confidence that DragonFire
will offer a near term and unique capability.
The trial is the culmination of significant joint investment by
the UK Ministry of Defence
(MOD) and industry over
a number of years totalling around £100 million.
Mark Hamilton, Managing Director Electronics UK, Leonardo said:
The DragonFire project draws on our decades of high energy laser
and beam director heritage to put the UK at the very forward edge of what is
possible in laser technology. The results of this live trial,
which saw our beam director integrated into the DragonFire
system, were impressive. We are looking forward to the next
stages of the programme.
QinetiQ Chief Executive, Steve Wadey, added:
We are delighted to have been involved in the trial, which has
brought together the best of UK industry expertise in the complex
weapons environment to work in close collaboration with
Dstl.
QinetiQ’s coherent beam-combining technology offers a laser
system that can achieve an enhanced power density and increased
engagement range, that is scalable for future uses. The trial has
proven the performance of these laser technologies and their
potential for adoption in sovereign defence capabilities.
This technology could provide the basis for a number of future
weapon systems. The DragonFire project is running in parallel and
closely connected to other defence programmes including the
Novel Weapons
Programme.
Through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), Dstl is
currently seeking innovations to better
understand the next steps necessary to develop and introduce the
first generation of deployed directed energy weapons.
Notes to editors
Testing of the DragonFire system took place on Dstl’s Porton
Down Range, which for decades has undertaken novel and
challenging trials. In this instance and to ensure absolute
safety, it was necessary that the effects were contained within
the Range area.
The Range has defined distances over which the trial serials were
conducted to a maximum distance of 3.4km from DragonFire. The
capability of DragonFire is classified.
