New UK air defense laser engages multiple missiles at once

06 Nov 2024

RAF pilots closer to being equipped with laser system, after successful live-fire trials in Sweden.

The new air defense laser system.

The UK’s military Royal Air Force pilots are “one step closer” to being equipped with a cutting-edge laser self-protection system, following 100% successful live-fire trials, the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced.

The laser is being designed to be fitted to a range of RAF aircraft including the intelligence gathering Shadow R2 and A400M transporter, ready to rapidly detect and defeat threats such as missiles.

During the trial at the Vidsel Test Range in Sweden, the operational system defeated a range of infrared heat-seeking missiles being fired simultaneously.

The MoD statement said, “100% of threats were quickly defeated using a laser with pinpoint accuracy, which has been designed and developed by the Team Pellonia partnership between Leonardo UK, Thales UK, and the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

Operational advantage

Defence Secretary, John Healey said, “Identifying, tracking and defeating threats from the air in seconds is crucial to having the edge over those who try to do us harm. We’re equipping our armed forces with the latest technology to keep them safe and give them the advantage on operations.”

The system works by Thales’s Elix-IR threat warning system rapidly detecting and identifying the launch of missiles, using a series of algorithms to filter out background clutter so that only valid threats are tracked, classified and declared.

Once a threat is classified, an alert is sent to the Leonardo Miysis directed infrared countermeasure which then tracks the incoming missile and directs a jamming laser onto the missile.

The MoD statement continues, “Threats are defeated faster than the time it takes to read this sentence. This UK engineered capability gives the MoD the latest generation best-in-class protection, whilst enjoying full operational independence, and offering the same freedoms to export customers.”

The live tests were witnessed by senior military officers from a number of NATO nations. Dstl’s Chief for Air Survivability, Mark Elson, said, “The UK defensive aids system is the culmination of MoD’s detailed understanding of changing threats alongside years of sustained defense investment in science and technology nurtured within Dstl. This has been aligned with the development capabilities of our commercial partners through Team Pellonia.”

Elson added, “The design of the system has the agility to protect platforms now and into the future, providing long-term operational advantage to the UK and our allies. This is enabled through Spiral Development, which provides capabilities such as the Dstl developed jamming waveform that defeats the guidance of a missile threat.”