Day: April 12, 2024

Calls for the United Kingdom, a key NATO ally, to test its new laser weapon on the battlefields of Ukraine are growing, as Kyiv struggles to contend with the demands placed on its existing air-defense systems and doubts continue over future Western aid.

The U.K. published de-classified footage of its new laser-directed energy weapon, known as the DragonFire, earlier this week. The British Defense Minister, Grant Shapps, said the brief clip “shows the power of the laser to cut down targets at the speed of light.”

The weapon works by using a concentrated beam to cut through airborne targets, such as drones. One of the main ideas behind laser-directed energy weapons is providing a low-cost way of shooting down incoming targets, taking away the need to expend expensive air-defense missiles.

Throughout more than two years of all-out war, Ukraine has faced Russia’s frequent, destructive onslaughts of kamikaze drone strikes, and Kyiv’s air-defense needs are at the fore of military aid packages from its supporters.

A cost-effective way of taking out incoming aerial drones is precisely what Ukraine needs, some Kyiv sources argue, raising the question of whether the conflict could be the ideal combat conditions to test the new technology.

An image of the new DragonFire laser-directed energy weapon. Calls for the United Kingdom, a key NATO ally, to test its new laser weapon on the battlefields of Ukraine are growing.
An image of the new DragonFire laser-directed energy weapon. Calls for the United Kingdom, a key NATO ally, to test its new laser weapon on the battlefields of Ukraine are growing.
British Defense Ministry

“We are ready to test it in Ukraine,” Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told Newsweek on Thursday.

“Ukraine is ready to take and test the operation of such a laser complex in combat conditions,” Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said in a post to social media platform, X.

Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. military, weapons systems and emerging technology. She joined Newsweek in January 2023, having previously worked as a reporter at the Daily Express, and is a graduate of International Journalism at City, University of London.

Languages: English, Spanish.

You can reach Ellie via email at e.cook@newsweek.com.

Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine …
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