The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it is continuing to explore directed energy weapons across multiple domains, but has not disclosed any additional contracts for laser weapons beyond existing programmes such as DragonFire.
In a written answer to Conservative MP James Cartlidge, Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said the government was investing in Directed Energy Weapons to accelerate their development and support sovereign capability, but stopped short of confirming any new procurement activity since mid-2024.
He said the government was “investing in Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) to accelerate these capabilities into service, developing sovereign technology and systems to put the UK at the forefront of an emerging market and be an engine for growth.”
The response makes clear that funding announced earlier this month is directed primarily at research, development and incremental improvement rather than immediate acquisition. According to Carns, the investment is intended to ensure that UK capabilities benefit from “continuous improvement of the technology, systems, and sub-systems” through further research and development.
While DragonFire remains the most visible accelerated laser weapon programme, the minister said the work underway would “contribute to advanced future capabilities across laser and radio-frequency (RF) systems across all domains,” but stressed that these systems are expected to enter service “on a longer timescale.”
The answer also underlined the strategic framing of directed energy within wider defence policy, noting that directed energy has been “designated a frontier industry in the Defence Industrial Strategy.” This positions DEW as both a military capability priority and an industrial growth area.
However, Carns declined to provide detail on whether any contracts had been placed for additional laser systems, citing security and commercial sensitivities. He said that “we cannot comment on all contracts for security and commercial reasons,” while confirming that the MOD is “exploring DEW applications across many use cases, both within the MOD and with partners across Government.”
Future procurement intentions, including whether DragonFire will be complemented by additional laser systems, are expected to be addressed in the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan.
Bit of a no brainer really. So that being said, it wont happen.
MoD not buying anything shock.
It doesn’t all have to be about DEW. Nothing new on GBAD, nothing new on Shorad, are they seeing what our allies in Europe and Scandinavia are doing and even asking why not for the UK? There’s hopefully some good stuff going on behind the scenes.
Merry Christmas and all the best to the 🇬🇧 for next year. Regards from 🇦🇺.
Wouldn’t It have been great to end the year with an actual order ?
something, anything ?
When Starmer announced the Increase in GDP spending, I thought he looked pained, like having a Diverticulosis attack (trust me, it’s painfull) he just looked like bursting into tears but so far, all we have got is a lot of bloody wind.
“I fart in your general direction”
“For God’s sake man, Go”
Baa humbug, paint me green and call me Grinch.
And another thing, Merry Christmas.
I’d rather quote Cromwell that Cameron. “I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.” They are all so scared of the political capital other parties will gain from a mind change that they can’t countenance one, even when they know in their hearts they are wrong. Let me add a quote from Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Unfortunately the answer always seems to be double down.
And another thing… Merry Christmas to you too.😊
At some point you need to start building weapons to test how well they go in the field.
Yes, limited rate production but they have to be produced.
Then spiral is possible.
Other than that it relies too much on simulations which may not provide the whole answer.
Spiral development not merely possible, but virtually guaranteed. LM has delivered a 300kW weap to USA for demo/testing. Megawatt class weaps in R&D. Deem the prudent UK path forward to be participation in an AUKUS Pillar II project/programme re lasers/DEW development/maturation. Limited UK production/deployment initially, to conserve precious equipment £s, more significant investment as tech matures. Typical S curve re tech development; the art form is in the selection of the appropriate timeframe for significant acquisition commitment. Next 15-25 yrs will prove to be quite interesting in this arena. Virtually inevitable.
Or in plain simple English “We have lots of folks in nice uniforms, they have no Weapons, we told them Santa was going to get some; but he just ignored them. As we have no money and we need them to shut up all up over Xmas we told them are Window Shopping down at the “Shiny New Weapons showroom”, if a salesman approaches we just tell them we are only browsing !
Worked for my Dad when 1 got to big to sit in back of a Fiat 126 !
Bah Humbug 🎅🏻
Come on, Rodders – it’s been “designated a frontier industry” don’tcha know? That’ll scare the hell out of Pootin!
Probably had a Committee pontificating for weeks before they came up with that term. More like a game of Cowboys and Indians.
Just promises as usual.
Other nations similar systems seem to have longer effective range. Is ours just making more modest claims? This is something we need to perfect & get into service ASAP.
Haven’t seen much in terms of effective range detailed. All seems rather nebulous. Spent some time on various sites trying to get figures on US lasers and found nothing even speculative on range let alone official figures. Has Dragonfire’s effective range been disclosed, wasn’t 2 to 3 Km mentioned? Was it stated that 10Km was the eventual goal, all seems to prick my memory, but maybe I’m confusing with other systems I’ve read about. Weather conditions do effect matters as do technological matters within the system and target type matters too, but 2 to 3Km seems to be what a 50Kw laser seems to offer at its most optimistic. 10Km would need more brute force but Dragonfire as other systems is scalable. But as I say not seen much that gives anything definitive, just that the Americans feel a 300Kw+ is needed to be truly a game changer which fits in with their USS Defiant stated aims for its lasers.
From what I remember I think dragonfire was rated at c2 or 3km & the Americans & others at c6-10km, but I may be wrong & it may be that dragonfire has yet to be trialed at full power. My “research” was just wikipedia & BBC news articles.
Unless those lasers can be depressed low enough to fire on Pro Palestinian cockroaches that are more likely to threaten British bases than russian missiles at this point, save some money and just add them to the Royal Navy.
Agreed!
So why do you guys always treat an answer to a parliamentary question like some sort of announcement? It is nothing of the sort it is just parliamentary process, it’s no more likely to contain serious content than an answer to PMs questions.
It is NOT an announcement .
It is NOT A press release.
They will never, for obvious reasons, contain any serious or unknown information, and it’s extremely unlikely that any commitments to anything will be revealed in this way.
Shhh… let’s not spoil the illusion.
PQ answers keep the content mill turning; us addicts need to be fed, and substance is very much optional.
It’s all about a known question, given by a clone, to a fellow clone, regarding a subject they know nothing about, with an answer that says nothing to a population that generally doesn’t know or care!
Because UKDJ inflates the importance of these by writing an entire article about them. It’s clickbait.
Yes
No Shift !!!!!
I guess it’s the lack of commitments any other way which just might make this sort of questioning relevant, that is probably at the root of everyone’s frustration. So more what it’s reflecting than the uninformative nature of the responses themselves.
We will roll out nothing, anywhere, no matter the threat. Our elected socialist clowns in charge know that but will never admit that! Their ideology negates any effort at defending this county and the west. Dead man walking Starmer is a puppet on a string to the left wing parliamentary Labour Party and he will say and do and dance to any tune they demand to try to save his position as our dear leader!
What would you consider the actions of a dictatorship? Cancelling local elections? Tick! Removing free speech? Tick! Arresting an average of 33 people per day for online comments? Tick! (more than Russia), the removal of trial by jury? Tick! The implementation of digital ID cards (not just ID cards, big difference)? Tick! The abuse and oppression by Islamist factions of the Jews? Tick! The list goes on and we as a democracy, and as a beacon of the free west, has died a death, a death at the alter of the socialist dream of control and fascism that makes Hitler on the 30s look like a bed friend. If you support this Government and its actions then you my friend are a Stalin/hitler clone/sheep who needs to wake up and see reality!
My study of 30s history clearly doesn’t correlate with yours, but whatever one thinks of Starmer comparisons with Hitler really is a piece of extreme fantastical imagination that gets us nowhere… Trump on the other hand. Also probably best to dig a little deeper as to why ‘fewer’ Russians are arrested for their online comments, meanwhile Nth Korea for that matter too while you are at it, what do they say about bare statistics.
Another opportunity to grump at Trump! Wow is he living rent free in your head maybe? However interpretation of history is what people do, from archaeological speculation to historical analysis’s, and mine maybe different than yours but alas the echo chambers we both inhabit are also different. You may like to appease, I prefer to challenge.
Both the most RW “Socialist” current Labour & the most RW Tories before them(Many of whom jumped to an even more extreme RW Reform) have allowed our forces to dwindle to virtually token levels in the face of the gretaest threat to peace in Europe since the cold war. Whichever people support or vote for it seems whoever is behind them pulling the strings want to deliver us into an authoratarian nightmare or remove our ability to defend ourselves from tyranny.
Agreed, the Tories were selfish opportunists who became so engrossed in their internal politics that they forget the reason they were supposed to be there and screed us over by their neglect. The left and Labour however, are now doing the same, however their ingrained socialist agenda negate them from really making an effort at defence, as they believe in international socialism and that has no borders! (Plus they have so many small majorities that they cannot afford to ostracise some of their minority votes) They are all fucking muppets mate!
Wrong! it’s embarrassing.
You’re just another crackpot lunatic spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt.
130 countries have now implemented some form of national digital identity system, they are mainly voluntary, of which, 37 out of the top 50 global economies by GDP have fully operational digital ID schemes.
The greater majority do not offer any physical ID Card as they are based on apps. The UK’s Digital ID will be mandatory only for the Right to Work.
The EU Digital Identity Wallet eIDAS 2.0 with 89 schemes tracking over 370 million people. is currently the gold standard, with every EU country required to offer one by late 2026. The US has 48 schemes, mostly state-level in the US covering 177 million people and is driven by mobile driver’s lLicenses mDLs in Apple and Google Wallets.
Africa has 16 major schemes covering 300 million people. Nigeria’s NIN and Ethiopia’s Fayda are leading the “leapfrog” movement to skip traditional paper IDs.
South America has 14 schemes reaching 308 million people, with Brazil leading via its unified CIN system.
Asia has 34 schemes reaching 2 BILLION people. India’s Aadhaar remains the world’s largest system with over 1.3 BILLION users.
12,000 arrests per year under specific communications laws, the trend represents a significant increase, nearly 60% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when the number was roughly 7,700 arrests per year, however, the number of convictions has actually fallen by nearly 50% over the last decade.
These arrests are primarily made under two specific pieces of legislation –
Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 Criminalises sending a message via a public electronics network that is “grossly offensive” or of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character.” and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 which targets the sending of communications with the intent to cause “distress or anxiety.”
Arrests are made for “Harmless” Offensiveness, Targeted Harassment, Incitement, and Threatening Behavior and possibly stalking threats. There is a need to rectify the “vague” wording of the 2003 Act to prevent the arrest of people for simply being “grossly offensive.”
In Russia, most arrests probably more than 40K are made for discrediting” or “spreading false information” about the military, I don’t think they care about peeps harassing each other, as retrospective arrests in 2024 about 85% of criminal cases for online statements were actually based on posts made in 2022 or 2023. which suggests the authorities are systematically “back-combing” social media histories.
Understandably, the far-right and anti-Israel activists account for a large portion of incidents, incidents spiked drastically following the 2023 Hamas attacks. Since then, average monthly incidents have remained roughly 58% higher than in the months prior to the conflict. Since the Air Strikes October 7 2023 and the ground invasion October 27, 2023 and the obliteration of the gazan strip, a lot of people have supported the Gazan’s plight.
Were elections canceled or delayed? certainly not cancelled entirely, but they were postponed in specific areas due to major changes in how those local councils are structured, so elections for restructuring councils are postponed until May 2026 and the new regional Mayors elections are delayed until May 2028.
freedom of speech, under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998 the UK law explicitly states that this freedom carries “duties and responsibilities.” It can be legally restricted for “the protection of health or morals” or “the prevention of disorder or crime.”
in the UK Offensive Speech is a criminal offense to send a communication that is “grossly offensive” (back to the Communications Act 2003) or to use “abusive or insulting” words intended to stir up racial hatred.
Who is living in your head … ?
Wow that’s a froth invested rant, with some very spurious and echo chambered ideals. Firstly, calm yourself down, wipe the froth from your lips and take your pin head out of your arse. We can all find any stats to prove an agenda, like you have, and I do enjoy your use of some very dodgy countries to justify, and use as examples in your support of digital ID cards. Take yourself off now old chap and maybe go to your next left wing pro whatever shite demo, shouting hate at the Jewish community. PS maybe I am in your head…..oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Thank you “Patrick Star” if you call that a rejoinder I’m very disappointed indeed, I’ve perused wittier and sharper prose by a smooth brained, demented Afghan Hound.
They say that “people become stupid ad hoc, that is, when they do not want to understand, where understanding would cause anxiety or guilt feeling, or would endanger an existing neurotic equilibrium.” However, I believe in a battle of the wits, even Coalemus would giving you a head start … just to play fair.
Happy New Year to you and all the very best for 2026.
I am sure being disappointed is a regular thing in your life, lack of achievement, personal, career etc (you are posting on a comment board at 00:43hrs new years morning that does say something) so no change there methinks. And it does seem that it is me in your head. Most amusing.
I’m was (still am occasionally, just for the fun, camaraderie and the silly $ on offer) a film & television dop / lighting director; with a respected credit roll. Used to work locally / internationally, but am now retired, enjoying the sun, surf and travel … oh, and the cricket, gotta to love the test cricket.
Posting at 00:43hrs in the morning … because I live in Australia.
Imagine the Earth is like a giant, slow-spinning ball. The Sun is like a big flashlight shining on one side of that ball. Because Sydney and London are on opposite sides of the world, they take turns being in the light!
When the Earth spins, the Sun “wakes up” Sydney first. London has to wait a long time for its turn.
In Sydney the sun is high in the sky, and people are eating lunch or sunbathing at the beach. While In London, it’s still very dark, and everyone is fast asleep in their beds!
Sydney is much further East, which means it sees the sunrise way before London. Because of this, Sydney’s clock is 11 hours ahead.
Imagine if you have a “magic” remote and could pause time right now, Sydney would be living in the future compared to London!
It’s just gone past midnight o’clock hrs so it;s now Friday, so by the time I hit “Post Comment” it will be 00:04 o’clock hrs your time. ; )
I hope that explains the time difference, I could draw a picture of the Earth/Sun orbit if you like.
Enjoy 2026.
And despite the absolute nonsense amount of tosh you just posted, I’m still in your head! 🤡
Hmmm. Being blunt on a Christmas morning, I don’t buy most of that; it is a collection of exaggerations with some conspiracy thrown in.
For example, that 33 per day figure is from 2023 (according to the Times where it surfaced) under the previous Government, so I don’t understand attempts to link it to Starmer & Co.
it’s also worth knowing that the number is not for “posts on social media”. It is for example incitement to violence using social media as the channel.
The overall number for those sections of law around threatening and malicious messaging includes is crimes such as revenge porn and blackmail. Organisations such as the “Free Speech Union” won’t tell you that, but that is what the numbers are if you check. I don’t think anyone wants to allow men to post nude photos of their ex-girlfriends to social media with no consequences.
ID cards are in place in almost every country in Europe and North America. What’s the problem, other than men with bees in their bonnets ranting away in sheds?
It really doesn’t help to fall for the kind of shit that the likes of Farage & his flim-flam men are shovelling. They need siloed gullibles to vote for them. We’ll find out how many there are, but personally I expect it to go pop some time soon, just like UKIP did last time around.
To my eye, it’s nice to have a Government with serious serious people (rather than the previous headless chickens) getting long-term things done, but we were never going to see results for two full years; that is just how long it takes. And recovering a nearly bankrupt country where every area of national life has been gutted for more than a decade is a 20 year project – unfortunately.
I’ll give you that the current Govt are not politically ruthless enough, or good enough at communications.
Thumbs up!
You don’t need to buy it, your opinion differs from mine and we will see how things develop. Although the ID card thing, many countries have ID cards, but only one the has digital, where all your data is stored and can be accessed in a single moment by some random “civil servant” for whatever means. And if you think that won’t/can’t happen then oh dear please do look into the ramifications of any single online portal full of data. It’s about control, as that’s the socialist’s ideology!
As I understand it, it’s already proposed for around a quarter of the population, under 18s. They have no right to opt out. They will be tracked. All their data will be scanned and copied including educational and medical records under a new digital ID. Because won’t somebody think of the children!
This is a combination of extensions to Online Safety Act the new Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Data Use and Access Bill.
Obviously information on families will be needed too and we’ll all have to continually ID ourselves to prove we aren’t children, thereby logging what adults do too. Not that my browsing history isn’t already collected and under scrutiny by AI. Oh, and you won’t be allowed a VPN unless you are an adult. I’m not sure how that would work. I hope parents will buy them for their children, but I doubt it.
It’s hugely intrusive and unnecessary.
What do you think Musk was doing while he was rummaging around under the auspices of DOGE accessing everyone’s personal information which there is no public knowledge of where that information has gone though I’m sure Groq might have an inkling, or Trump insisting upon everyone entering the US providing months of online history, so the far right are as active as anyone in exercising control over their population and in their case outside populations by those very online tech bro’s social media platforms who by direct administration pressure are openly now trying to manipulate and destabilise other Countries, even threatening those who dare stand up to their digital Imperialism. More ways to skin a cat than openly presenting a proposed digital ID card. Sadly one way or another we are all entering a dystopian reality that bodes badly for the World and most emanates from the right, with the left more often simply playing the naive useful idiots that only encourages it.
So if it’s already happening in other countries (a great opportunity for an anti Trump sesh) then it’s fine, up to you. However millions don’t want to roll over and accept the unacceptable. If you’re happy to do that then who am I to say otherwise.