A new anti-missile laser downed 100% of its targets while fighting multiple threats at once, UK defense officials say
The UK says a new anti-missile laser for its aircraft defeated 100% of its targets in a live test.
Officials said it faced off against multiple heat-seeking missiles launched simultaneously.
They said the new laser is meant for aircraft like the Shadow R2 and A400M Atlas.
The UK Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it successfully tested a new air-defense system that tracks missiles midflight and jams them with a precision laser.
In a statement, officials said the laser downed 100% of its targets at the Vidsel Test Range in Sweden while facing “a range of infrared heat-seeking missiles being fired simultaneously.”
“100% of threats were quickly defeated using a laser with pinpoint accuracy,” the statement said.
A joint venture with aerospace firms Leonardo and Thales, it’s designed for Royal Air Force planes such as the Shadow R2 surveillance craft and the A400M Atlas transport.
The statement did not say if the laser was tested while mounted on a flying aircraft.
When contacted by Business Insider, a ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the system’s range and the number of missiles used in the test, citing security concerns.
Officials said the system combines Thales’ threat warning software, Elix-IR, which uses algorithms to detect missiles in the air, with an infrared laser built by Leonardo, called Mysis.
“Threats are defeated faster than the time it takes to read this sentence,” a statement by Defense Secretary John Healey read.
His ministry added that senior officials from several NATO states observed the live-fire trial, but did not say which countries they were from.
The UK is likely to offer this new technology to its allies, with the ministry statement saying it would be available to “export customers.”
In a 2022 statement about its defense agreement with Leonardo and Thales — called Team Pellonia — the ministry said its project would be compliant with the NATO Defensive Aids System standard, allowing it to sell the technology to approved nations.
The UK was the world’s seventh-largest arms exporter with a 3.7% market share from 2019 to 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
This isn’t the first laser weapon the UK has touted in recent years, as Western militaries look to complement expensive conventional air defense with cheaper options for bringing down missiles and drones.
In March, it published footage of its DragonFire laser taking down several targets in Scotland, saying the trialed weapon can strike a coin from a kilometer away and costs $13 per shot.
Four months later, the UK debuted another weapon, a ground vehicle-mounted laser that officials said can fire at $0.12 per shot, in publicly released images.
October 21, 2024: This story was updated to reflect a response from the UK Defense Ministry.
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