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?
@ TJ-2018
Why are you constantly posting obvious AI? Can’t you write yourself? How about posting under your real name, as a few of us do here. Have you got a cowardice problem?
Wow!
Time for someone to take their medication and go to bed, I’d say.
An earlier version was deployed to Ukraine, apparently..
We seem to be giving an awful lot of money and world leading defence tech to Ukraine for nothing in return. Will Ukraine be placing big orders for Typhoons and other equipment or will they be traitors like India after we have them billions in aid and created them and buy french defence equipment instead? It really is time the UK acted more like America and demanded some big assets in return for this!! Absolutely agree with helping them at the start for nothing in return but it’s gone beyond that now. We need something to show for the tens of billions we’ve handed over and secret tech we have given them.
Wouldn’t say nothing in return, were getting a lot of drone tech in return, were also getting updated real battlefield Feedback on those drones. And advancements. It’s also expanding our own industrial base as many drones are being produced here. Meaning when the war ends we’ll have a hot supply line with the most advanced drones in the world. You need to look beyond the trashy narrow minded headlines
You’re right in that it is unlikely the UK government would aid Ukraine without getting anything in return no matter how under the table, however considering the rather nonsensical position on selling the Chagos islands, one is forgiven for thinking otherwise.
How long does a laser like this have to stay on target for a kill? I assume it has to heat the target or burn through the structure? How much of a problem is snow, fog, rain? Could you add a laser sensor to your drone to make it evade when it detected a laser on target?
The attraction is obvious but I just wonder how operationally useful they will be in real world conditions.