2024-01-19 15:57:00
For the first time in testing, the UK military has hit aerial targets using the DragonFire long-range laser directed energy weapon system, the country’s Ministry of Defense reported.
Tests were carried out at the Hebridean proving ground in Scotland. The range of DragonFire is classified, the British military department said, noting only that the complex can hit “any visible target.” How reports Times newspaper, a laser from different positions and a distance of several kilometers destroyed the approaching drones.
The ministry also says the system is accurate enough to hit a £1 coin (2.3 centimeters in diameter) from a distance of one kilometre.
The department estimated the cost of one laser shot at less than 10 pounds (regarding $13). For comparison, the cost of one Sea Viper missile, with which the British destroyer Diamond hit Houthi missiles and drones in the Red Sea, is regarding one million pounds ($1.3 million).
The tests were an “important step” towards the introduction of laser technology into weapons. The UK Army and Navy are considering using the weapon for air defence, the statement said. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said the technology might reduce “dependence on expensive ammunition, as well as the risk of collateral damage.”
The development of laser weapons comes amid the growing use of drones in armed conflicts, which are too expensive to shoot down with missiles. notes BBC News. The US Navy has already installed laser systems on several destroyers, but have not yet been reported to use them in combat.
In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the Russian laser complex Peresvet. According to the Ministry of Defense, in the same year the Peresvets began testing combat duty. No information regarding the characteristics of Peresvet has so far been disclosed; supposedly these complexes are capable of blinding enemy satellite reconnaissance systems, but nothing has been reported regarding their actual use or successful testing. In the fall of 2022, rumors appeared that luminous pillars seen in the Belgorod area might be the result of the work of the Peresvet complex.
In the spring of 2022, then Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov saidthat the Russian military is allegedly using the first samples of other domestic Zadira laser systems during the invasion of Ukraine. According to him, they can burn through a target and shoot down drones at a range of up to five kilometers. There has been no independent confirmation of this.
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