The first successful tests of a radio wave neutralization system for drones took place in the UK.

The Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom reported on this.

British soldiers have successfully trialled for the first time a game-changing weapon that can take down a swarm of drones using radio waves for less than the cost of a pack of mince pies.

The Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) development system can detect, track and engage a range of threats across land, air and sea.

The weapon uses high-frequency waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside devices such as drones, causing them to be immobilised or fall out of the sky.

The development system has been produced by a consortium led by Thales UK and including sub-contractors QinetiQ, Teledyne e2v and Horiba Mira, and with support from the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom.

A live firing trial was recently completed by the Army’s Royal Artillery Trials and Development Unit and 7 Air Defence Group at a range in West Wales, where they successfully targeted and engaged Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS), in a first for the British Armed Forces.

The user experimentation trials completed in recent months have enabled Army air defence personnel to explore and exercise the capability’s potential in different configurations across a variety of range environments, threat types and engagement scenarios.

Nevertheless, the test program will continue to improve the capabilities and potential lethality of the drones.

The Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapons (RFDEW) was presented in May 2024.

Militarnyi previously reported that the British Army had successfully fired for the first time using a high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS) mounted on an armored vehicle chassis.

During the new tests, the operators were soldiers from the 16th Army Regiment of the Royal Artillery who had undergone appropriate training.

This regiment is the only one in the British army equipped with medium-range air defense systems. Its task is to protect ground units from enemy air attacks. As part of the test, British soldiers successfully tracked and neutralized several moving mini-UAVs of the quadcopter type using the HELWS system.

The laser system was created with the aim of finding a cheap and effective means of enhancing air defense.

The high-energy laser weapon mounted on the Wolfhound armored vehicle represents a significant step forward in the Land Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) program.

This lightweight and portable system is the first laser weapon to be integrated into a ground vehicle in the UK. In this case, a Wolfhound 6×6 armored vehicle was used.