Ministers have declined to commit Ukraine to a role in the DragonFire laser programme, saying the department is focused on maturing advanced sovereign technologies and will work with key allies, while continuing to identify areas where cooperation with Ukraine can deliver mutual benefit, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Andrew Rosindell, the Reform UK member for Romford, asked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he would make it his department’s policy to involve Ukraine in the DragonFire laser directed energy weapon programme.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard said: “The UK remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine and continues to work closely with the Ukrainian Government and Armed Forces to help them defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The Ministry of Defence is focused on maturing advanced sovereign technologies and transitioning laser Directed Energy Weapons from research and experimentation into operational capability. The UK is a world leader in directed energy weapons and will work with key allies who share our mutual aims in this field.
“The UK will continue to work closely with Ukraine to identify areas where defence cooperation can deliver mutual benefit and support Ukraine’s defence needs.”
DragonFire is the British laser directed energy weapon demonstrator developed by MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and it hit a moving aerial target in a trial in Scotland in January 2024 at a power level sufficient to destroy a drone. The system is being accelerated towards a Royal Navy fitting on a Type 45 destroyer, bringing the in-service date forward from 2032 to the late 2020s.
Ukraine has the problem lasers are intended to solve, since Shahed drones arrive in hundreds on a single night and intercepting them with missiles costing orders of magnitude more than the target is an exchange rate no country can sustain.
Kyiv has fielded gun systems, electronic warfare and interceptor drones in quantity for that reason. A weapon with a marginal cost per shot measured in pence would change that arithmetic.
“Ukraine has the problem lasers are intended to solve ….. Kyiv has fielded gun systems, electronic warfare and interceptor drones in quantity for that reason. A weapon with a marginal cost per shot measured in pence would change that arithmetic.”
Would we risk deploying a unit to Ukraine if we netted some developments for the program?
An earlier version was deployed to Ukraine, apparently..