The DragonFire laser weapon, which can destroy drones and missiles, will appear on warships of the British Navy by 2027. However, Ukraine can receive it from London much earlier.
DragonFire for Ukraine. What is currently known
As the journalists managed to find out, the Armed Forces of Ukraine can get such modern weapons, as the military is quickly mastering advanced technologies.
According to Grant Shapps, head of the British Ministry of Defense, delays in introducing new weapons technologies are "the biggest waste of money for defence."
What I want to do is speed up a process that is usually very long, maybe up to 10 years, to a much shorter time frame and deploy it potentially on ships and potentially on land.
Grant Shapps
British Defence Secretary
The British minister officially confirmed that London intends to add DragonFire to its arsenal by 2027 but wants to send prototypes to Ukraine earlier, even if they are not 100% finished.
Let's put it this way, it doesn't have to be 100 percent perfect for Ukrainians to possibly get it. It's still 2027 at the moment, but of course I'll see what we can do to bring it up, Grant Shapps explained.
According to preliminary data, the first laser weapon of the Armed Forces may be received as early as September, when the 7th Air Defense Group will test this technology.
What is currently known about DragonFire
According to British experts, the weapon works by focusing 37 channels of 1.5 kW laser beams arranged in a hexagonal array and combining them with mirrors to combine and amplify power.
In addition, DragonFire is considered invisible and silent, as the wavelength of light is about one micron, invisible to the human eye and close to the infrared spectrum of light.
Interestingly, the range of her weapon has not yet been disclosed.
During tests, the weapon was able to destroy drones and detonate mortars in less than five seconds. It instantly transforms the metal surface into plasma with a temperature of 3000°C and can burn sheet metal, fuselage and weapons in a matter of seconds.
