Anti-drone laser fires from British Army vehicle for first time
A high-powered laser weapon capable of shooting down aerial drones has been fired from a British military vehicle for the first time.
Raytheon’s high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS) was mounted on a British Army Wolfhound armoured truck for the test-fire, which took place at the Government’s Porton Down science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire
It is the first time the weapon has been trialled in the UK as part of an ongoing Ministry of Defence (MoD) programme to develop directed energy weapons.
HELWS, which is already cleared for use by the US military, is designed to shoot down small drones and be compatible with existing air defence systems such as radar.
Developing anti-drone systems is increasingly important as low-cost weapons become more common on the battlefield. For example, Russia and Ukraine have relied heavily on drones to launch attacks on one another.