High-speed lasers can be used to engrave things, while The Defense Science and Technology Laboratory’s (DSTL) DragonFire is the UK’s first high-powered long range laser. It was successfully tested at Porton Down and the trials involved firing the demonstrator at a number of targets over a number of ranges, which required pinpoint accuracy from the beam director.
The data collected will strengthen the UK’s understanding of how high-energy lasers as well as their associated technologies can operate over distance and defeat representative targets. Two of the major areas that need to be demonstrated in order to provide confidence in the performance and viability of LDEW systems are the ability to deliver high levels of laser power with sufficient accuracy.
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This trial is the culmination of design, development and demonstration activity over a number of years. DragonFire has already successfully demonstrated an ability to track targets with very high levels of precision and to maintain a laser beam on the selected aim-point. This trial has assessed the performance of the laser itself – the outcome shows that the UK has world-leading capability in the technologies associated with laser directed energy weapons (LDEW) systems,” said Ben Maddison, DSTL’s Technical Partner.
