A game-changing weapons system that can instantly disable swarms of hostile drones is being rapidly developed by the British Military.
The cutting-edge 'drone killer' uses radio waves to target and scramble the electronics of enemy drones and take down multiple hostile targets at once.
Defence sources have told GB News the new technology has the potential to offer significant protection from the kind of attack drones currently being used by Vladimir Putin's forces to deadly effect in Ukraine.
The development of the weapon is being rapidly increased as part of efforts to respond to the Defence Secretary's call to put the UK’s defence industry on a war footing, and follows the Prime Minister’s announcement last month of an increase to the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
The new technology has the potential to offer significant protection from the kind of attack drones currently being used by Vladimir Putin's forces to deadly effect in Ukraine
MOD/Reuters
The developers of the Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) say the system is highly versatile and "can detect, track and engage a range of threats across land, air and sea".
At present, the system is capable of engaging and neutralising targets up to 1km away, but is rapidly being improved to ensure it is lethal at far greater distances.
The system is also inexpensive to use, at just 10p per shot fired, in comparision to hundreds of thousands of pounds for alternative missile-based air defence systems.
Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge said: “The war in Ukraine has shown us the importance of deploying uncrewed systems, but we must be able to defend against them too.
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The system is capable of engaging and neutralising targets up to 1km away
MOD
"As we ramp up our defence spending in the coming years, our Defence Drone Strategy will ensure we are at the forefront of this warfighting evolution.
“We are already a force to be reckoned with on science and technology, and developments like RFDEW not only make our personnel more lethal and better protected on the battlefield, but also keep the UK a world leader on innovative military kit."
Developers say the drone killer technology can be mounted on a variety of military vehicles.
It uses a mobile power source to produce pulses of Radio Frequency energy in a beam that can rapidly fire sequenced shots at individual targets or be broadened to simultaneously engage all threats within that beam.
Paul Hollinshead, Chief Executive at the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory said: “These game changing systems will deliver decisive operational advantage to the UK armed forces, saving lives and defeating deadly threats.
“World class capabilities such as this are only possible because of decades of research, expertise and investment in science and technology at Dstl and our partners in UK industry.”
The drone killer weapons system will undergo extensive field testing with British soldiers over the summer.
The Ministry of Defence was unable to say whether the weapon would eventually be made available to armed forces in Ukraine.