- New lasers on British planes are able to target and take out incoming threats
Lasers able to take down swarms of heat-seeking missiles have been successfully trialled on British aircraft for the first time in a boon for the Royal Air Force.
The Ministry of Defence announced yesterday that new ‘air protection lasers’ had destroyed 100 per cent of their targets in a live firing trial in Sweden.
The Miysis system is capable of picking out incoming missiles, tracking them and firing a jamming laser with ‘ultimate precision’.
‘Threats are defeated faster than the time it takes to read this sentence,’ the MoD said in a statement, heralding the success of pioneering tech produced in the UK.
Earlier this year the UK successfully tested its DragonFire laser directed energy weapon in Scotland, able to ‘engage’ and ‘cut through’ targets ‘at the speed of light’.
British A400s (pictured) and surveillance planes could be fitted with lasers in the near future
The lasers identify incoming missiles and fire jamming lasers to ‘confuse’ them
Miysis lasers work like traditional flares to ‘confuse’ missile guidance systems and steer rockets away from their targets.
They are being designed to fit onto British A400M transporters and Shadow R2 intelligence gathering planes to help evade threats ‘such as missiles’.
The MoD said trials had taken place at the Vidsel Test Range in Sweden, taking on a ‘range’ of infrared heat-seeking missiles being fired simultaneously.
The lasers are designed and developed by the Team Pellonia partnership between Leonardo UK, Thales UK and the MoD’s own Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
The collaboration helped support 1,950 jobs across Scotland, the MoD reports.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said of the development: ‘Identifying, tracking and defeating threats from the air in seconds is crucial to having the edge over those who try to do us harm.
‘We’re equipping our Armed Forces with the very latest technology to keep them safe and give them the advantage on operations.
‘This high-tech laser is another excellent example of joint working between our Dstl experts and the UK’s defence industry.’
The MoD boasts that the lasers offer the ‘latest generation best-in class protection’ with ‘full operational independence’.
It suggests the new capability could be offered to ‘export customers’.
The MoD and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory reported in January that a trial of another laser capable of ‘cutting through’ a target had been tested at the MoD’s Hebrides Range.
The DragonFire laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) can ‘engage with any visible target’ by firing a high-power laser into the sky.
‘The precision required is equivalent to hitting a £1 coin from a kilometre away,’ the MoD said.
The DragonFire LDEW is capable of engaging with ‘any visible target’ (Pictured)
An American AC-130 gunship deploys flares, able to distract incoming missile threats
Firing costs ‘typically less than £10 per shot’, offering the potential to replace expensive missiles in a range of tasks.
Then-Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said at the time that ‘this kind of cutting-edge technology as the potential to revolutionise the battlespace by reducing the reliance on expenseive ammunition, while also lowering the risk of collateral damage’.
The MoD announced plans to fund a multi-million-pound programme to ‘transition’ the technology from trials to the field.
Research into the LDEW was priced at £100mn, the result of a joint investment between the MoD and industry partners.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
