In response to parliamentary questions raised by James Cartlidge (Conservative – South Suffolk), the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has outlined its efforts to enhance the security of UK and allied military bases through the development and deployment of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs).
Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, highlighted the role of DEWs in safeguarding military bases against evolving threats:
“DEW technology mitigates against the increasing threat from direct attack or weapon drop drones by defeating them or discouraging attempts by significantly reducing their probability of success.”
Eagle confirmed that the MOD has trialled DEW systems and is leveraging data from other non-UK systems to develop tailored solutions for base protection. She emphasised the MOD’s priority of transitioning this technology into operational capability:
“Throughout their development we will ensure they’re designed to counter the threats faced by our Armed Forces. This will allow our Armed Forces to operate more effectively against a changing and asymmetric threat landscape.”
Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapons, which use radio waves to disable enemy electronics and drones, are central to this strategy. Eagle described them as a “game-changing” capability, stating:
“The system has been tested against a range of targets, proving to be highly effective. The system will be able to effect targets up to 1km away, with further development taking place to extending the range.”
While the MOD acknowledged the importance of DEWs in base defence, Eagle declined to provide specific details about their use in protecting military installations:
“Due to operational security, the MOD does not comment on the specific protection of military bases.”
This underscores the sensitive nature of military base protection and the need to balance transparency with security requirements.
By investing in sovereign DEW capabilities, the MOD aims to ensure that UK and allied bases remain secure against a wide range of threats, particularly those posed by drones and electronic warfare systems.
As Eagle concluded:
“This decision demonstrates the MOD’s approach to transitioning technology into capability meeting real-world threats.”
Should, not could.
And if we could add 40mm guns as well, as well as CAMM for the really important ones, that would be swell.
We need a multi-layered GBAD solutions. Long range anti ballistic missiles- so Aster 30 NTs, backed up by medium range missiles out to 25kms- so Land Ceptor, then CIWS such as phalanx and 40mm bofors guns- all radar guided and then final defence- line of sight directed energy weapons. SDSR has to sort this issue out, its absolute folly to have no organic air defences other than a small number of army land ceptor batteries.
Its also funny after 14 years of Tory mismanagement that a conservative MP is asking the new labour government what they are going to do about an integrated air defence network. What were the Tories doing about the situation over the last 14 years?….that’s right precisely nothing.
Very true. None of them have a leg to stand on.
Dominic Cummings in the Chris Willamson podcast has a very interesting take on the current batch of politicians based on his expereince of government. Everything is failing at the moment because the political class are not motivated by the desire to improve things. Defence policy becomes a subset of treasury policy because the Prime Minister wants the money to give away in foreign aid or build a high speed rail link. The Secreratary of State for Defence doesn’t challenge him because he wan’t a political career. It’s not that they try and fail. They don’t feel the need to try in the first place. They’re more interested in the short term headlines and career. Nothing improves because the bureacracy nor the political leadership is motivated to improve things.
We’re going to need to find a better way of selecting our politicians or burning their careers in realtime if they fail to try to deliver.
They were bulking out the pension budget to 2.5x the defence budget as a big delicious bribe to the pensioner class, of which 25% of pensioner households are millionaires.
If we means-tested out JUST the millionaires, we’d have ~£35bn to spend on any kit we could ever desire.
My god, how dare pensioners have any equity, savings or financial security, damn them can’t they just die, as once they are gone no one else will ever be pensioners!!!!! Oh dear, more subject matter research regarding your post and statistics needed, rather than echo chamber drum beat politics.
As the proportion of pensioners in this country increases, so will the proportion of GDP spend the elderly require. Even if nobody lives longer. Just a fact of life and not really a government “choice”. The best I can think to be done is to shift to preventive medcine and help people move into a fitter retirement rather than a creaky one than burdens the NHS.
I’m interested on where you get your figures
And even add in some Boxer based or Tridon type truck based shorad. Rapidly deployable, shareable calibre ammo, affordable?
“Long range anti ballistic missiles- so Aster 30 NTs”
Note that Aster NT is not a long range anti ballistic missile. Arrow 3 , Standard variant, are.
RAF should never have given up its weapons then and the Air Bases would be defended as they should be. It will never happen as the money will never be allocated to make a worthwhile system purchase.
We could, we should, however we won’t. Ground based air defence should be a fully integrated system alongside QRA controled by the RAF for mainland defence. The current system will fail against any mass drone/missile attack leakers will get through QRA and could strike bases critical for QRA, especially lossiemouth.
1 Km range, means it would only be good for shooting at slow moving drones (in good weather conditions).
Surely the greater threat to any base would come from cruise or ballistic missiles?
And given the current trends in procurement, it will take a decade to build and we will only get a small number of them.
They’ve been banging them on Wolfhounds which are readily available.
This might buck the trend.
I hope you are right, but still, we need some decent land-based ABM systems to counter ballistic and cruise missile threats.
I have no objection to lasers being used in defence but the issue is that they are short-ranged. Can they realistically down an incoming missile from anything higher than a mile away?
Really we need a multi-layered, integrated air defence network.
1. Anti-ballistic missiles capable of striking incoming ICBMs/IRBMs etc at a distance of approx. 100 miles, e.g. Aster 30 NT
2. Short-medium range missiles, e.g. Land Ceptor used on Sky Sabre
3. Lasers and other SHORAD platforms
Really, we just need to build more Sky Sabre batteries and integrate Aster 30 NTs onto some of them. Have at least 2 batteries covering all of the UK air defence, and then install Sky Sabres, lasers and other SHORAD around military bases around the UK.
YAL-1 was designed with a range of 600km and was tested against missiles at a range of 200km.