`The British Armed Forces are developing a new, potentially game-changing weapon that uses radio waves to disable enemy electronic equipment and bring down many unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).
The agency said the device, called Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW), uses radio waves to detect, capture and disable electronic components on drones at maximum distances.
RFDEW system in the photo posted on May 16.
`RFDEW uses the power source from the transmitter to emit pulses of radio frequency energy in a beam. This beam can quickly fire multiple shots in quick succession at individual targets or expand further to attack
Each shot costs about 0.12 USD, so it is a much more economical solution than firing anti-aircraft missiles worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to block drones.
The UK Ministry of Defense said RFDEW can be mounted on many types of military vehicles and is highly automated, operated by only one person.
`The war in Ukraine has shown the importance of unmanned systems, so we also need to have the ability to defend against this type of weapon,` the announcement said.
Paul Hollinshead, CEO of one of the companies involved in developing RFDEW, said the weapon would give the British military a `decisive` combat advantage, protecting lives and neutralizing threats.
Suicide drones are a commonly used weapon in the Ukraine conflict thanks to their low price and high combat effectiveness, able to destroy many types of heavy equipment worth thousands of times more.
British Minister of Defense Procurement James Cartlidge (center) stands in front of the RFDEW system in a photo posted on May 16.
In addition, Kiev also regularly deploys long-range drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to attack energy infrastructure deep within Russian territory.
In the Middle East, this type of weapon is used by Houthi forces to attack cargo ships moving in the Red Sea.
Directed energy weapons, including high-energy lasers and devices that use radio waves or microwaves, have recently received increased attention, as they are seen as potential countermeasures weapons.
The Pentagon currently spends $1 billion a year on the directed energy weapons development program, according to a report last year by the US Government Audit Office (GAO).
Doug Bush, Assistant Secretary of the US Army, said earlier this month that the country’s military had used laser weapons to shoot down hostile UAVs in the Middle East, thereby confirming for the first time that they had used this type of weapon in combat operations.
In January, the British Ministry of Defense announced that the country had successfully tested the `Dragon Fire` laser cannon, capable of destroying drones almost instantly at a distance of one kilometer.
