UK Simply Took Down a Swarm of Drones With a 13-Cent-a-Shot Vitality Weapon

The British Military says it shot down a drone swarm utilizing a radiowave-based directed power weapon, in a primary for the expertise within the UK.

At an undisclosed weapons vary in Wales, the Radiofrequency Directed Vitality Weapon, or RF-DEW, tracked and took down the swarm through the trial, and labored with “near-instant impact,” the Ministry of Defence mentioned on Thursday.

RF-DEW has been proven in earlier trials to be efficient from over 1,000 yards.

However — as the most important such trial within the UK up to now — this was the primary time it took down an entire swarm of drones.

RF-DEW is being developed by a consortium led by French producer Thales, which dubbed the tech “RapidDestroyer” throughout trials.

Thales additionally collaborated with each the French and British protection ministries on the MMCM naval mine countermeasures system that’s being rolled out this yr.

RF-DEW makes use of high-frequency radio waves to disrupt or harm digital elements inside drones, in what Thales described as a “hard-kill” mechanism. That is in distinction to current programs that jam, or confuse drones, Thales mentioned.

The expertise is taken into account to be a low-cost accomplice to larger-scale, missile-based air protection programs, and prices simply 13 cents a shot, in response to the MOD.

The British Military performed the trials in opposition to 100 small quadcopter drones, of two varieties: The Boresight Raider, a drone with swarming capabilities designed particularly to be used in counter-drone tech trials, and the Parrot Anafi, a business off-the-shelf drone digital camera.

Sgt Mayers, the British officer who introduced down the drones, mentioned that the system was “fast to study and straightforward to make use of.”

“With enhancements on vary and energy, which might include additional improvement, this is able to be a terrific asset to Layered Air Defence,” Mayers added.

This comes in opposition to a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has seen main developments in the usage of drones in fight.

Drone swarms — the place teams of drones act autonomously or semi-autonomously and in live performance with one another — are nonetheless of their infancy, with Ukrainian corporations trialing swarms designed to withstand Russian digital warfare.

The RF-DEW trial is a part of a push to extend new applied sciences in British protection capabilities. There are presently no plans to deploy the system in Ukraine, the MOD mentioned.

In early April, the UK authorities introduced a £400 million, or $530 million, fund for protection innovation, with 10% of the MOD’s gear funds to be ringfenced for brand new tech.