British Army troops fired a 15 kilowatt laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) mounted on a Wolfhound armoured vehicle against drones at Radnor Range, a test site in Wales, according to a government statement on 11 December.
Known as Project Swinton, the LDEW system is a demonstrator that showcases the viability of lasers as a future counter-uncrewed aerial system (C-UAS) solution.
It works by directing an intense beam of infra-red light in the form of energy at its target using advanced sensors and tracking systems which maintain lock-on and accuracy in real time. For security reasons, it is not known how long the beam must keep contact with a target before it is destroyed.
Team Hersa – a collaborative team including DE&S and Dstl, the UK’s defence procurement and innovation agencies – started developing the objectives for the project in early 2020. The contract was later awarded to Raytheon UK in September 2021.
While this is the first time that soldiers have used the system against dozens of hovering quadcopter drones, the demonstrator was first deployed with success by technical specialists within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at its Porton Down facility in July 2024.
Lasers: a future C-UAS solution
“This is still an emerging technology but the world has changed and we are seeing more use of drones in the battlespace,” observed Stephen Waller, Directed Energy Weapons Team Leader, DE&S. “This requires a more cost-effective solution to protect our troops.”
Cheaper drone technologies are available on the market thanks to the strides made in the commercial sector. They can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance but as cheaply-made loitering munitions, they pose a considerable cost gap with the larger armoured vehicles they put out of service.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ukraine, where defence officials confirmed that its forces have deployed more than 1.2 million drones over the last 11 months against invading Russian forces. By the end of 2024, they added, another 100,000 units are planned for delivery.
Adversarial drones have lately plagued the UK MoD by flying over US fixed military installations across the country. One senior MoD official stated that the nation is “doing its best” to counter drone swarms over these bases, while the US Department of Defense stated it is taking the situation “seriously”.
For that reason, nations are investing heavily in laser capabilities. According to a GlobalData thematic intelligence report on Counter-Drone Technologies (2024), "the ability to ‘fire’ multiple shots in quick succession at a low cost also makes lasers a strong contender for future systems intended to tackle drone swarms.
"Of the listed technology trends, laser systems are the most developed; these systems will be crucial weapons in the future of war as they can successfully navigate the greatest challenges posed by advanced UAS, such as swarming technology and cost analysis."
This reporter was invited to Schrobenhausen in October 2023, where MBDA Germany provided details on its own LDEW system for the German armed forces, which the manufacturer is now in the process of making more powerful and compact.
The UK, meanwhile, is hedging its bets on two programmes, the land-based LDEW and a naval demonstrator known as DragonFire, which has reached technology readiness level seven.
