The British Army tested a new radio frequency directed energy weapon against drone swarms. The weapon achieved key milestones, including taking down two drone swarms in a single engagement and defeating over 100 drones across all exercises.
The large-scale trial conducted on Thursday at a weapons range in West Wales marks the Army’s biggest exercise of its kind to date.
The Ministry of Defence said an industry consortium led by Thales UK developed the RF directed energy weapon system demonstrator. Team Hersa, a partnership between Defence Equipment & Support and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, organized the trials. The weapon uses high-frequency radio waves to disable or damage the electronic components within drones, causing them to malfunction or fall.
With a firing cost of just 13 cents per shot, the RF DEW system could offer a low-cost supplement to traditional missile-based air defense. MOD said it is effective at ranges up to 1 kilometer and can counter threats immune to jamming methods. Developing the RF DEW is part of the British government’s Defence Industrial Strategy and has generated 135 high-skilled jobs across Northern Ireland and the South-East of England.
“This significant experiment exemplifies the strength of British innovation, driven by our home-grown industry, technology firms and scientific talent,” Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle said in a statement. “We continue to strengthen our defence sector, adding more cutting-edge capabilities to keep the U.K. secure at home and strong abroad, while making defense an engine for growth across our towns and cities.”
The large-scale trial follows another recent advancement in U.K. defense technology. Earlier this month, Dstl and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory completed six weeks of testing several propulsion system designs for future hypersonic weapons.