The UK has tested a new “microwave weapon” which could be used to defend British airspace and help allies under attack.
Drones have been integral to warfare in Ukraine, used by both sides for intelligence gathering and air attacks. Cheap and accessible, they are capable of taking out some of Nato’s most powerful weaponry.
They have also caused problems at home, with Gatwick Airport subject to repeated cancellations due to drone sightings near the airfield and US airbases in the UK stalked by mystery drones.
Talks between European leaders and Donald Trump’s top team about efforts to end the war in Ukraine continue, with the UK leading efforts to secure a coalition peacekeeping military force.
A new piece of counter-drone kit, successfully tested by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) this week, could change the game.
10p weapon that can fry drones
The “RapidDestroyer” is a new type of Radiofrequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) designed to combat drones.
It uses high-power radio frequency to blast drones in mid air, effectively frying their electronic systems to make them crash or malfunction.
It is also fairly cheap, at an estimated cost of 10p per shot fired, which the MOD says means it could provide a “cost-effective complement to traditional missile-based air defence systems.”
In a trial on Thursday, two swarms of eight drones were disabled by the weapon.
Across the entire RapidDestroyer project, more than 100 drones have been tracked, targetted and defeated using the weapon.
The trial was completed at a weapons range in Wales and was the largest counter-drone swarm exercise the British Army have conducted to date.
The UK Government has invested more than £40m in RFDEW research which it says will support 135 highly skilled jobs in Northern Ireland and the south east of England.
Military sources said that it was still “relatively early days” for the technology but that it was “breaking new ground” on counter-drone technology.
“It was a really good trial, which showed it is capable of knocking drones out,” one defence insider said.
“It could have very wide societal implications, used to defence airspace, like over airports. There really are lots of potential uses.”
The RapidDestroyer will now need to undertake further tests before it is rolled out widely, at home or abroad.
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“Ukraine has definitely bumped up the importance of this kind of technology,” they said. “It was informed by the war in Ukraine, but not immediately destined for it.”
Drones have caused chaos at UK airports, with Gatwick brought to a standstill in 2018 and cancelling flights again in 2023 over sightings near the airfield.
Flying drones too close to the airport is illegal, but there were 368 unauthorised drone sightings reported within flight restriction zone (FRZ) in West Sussex between 1 January and 13 December 2024.
Late last year, a series of mystery drones were reported over US Air Force bases in the UK, with British troops drafted in to help find out who was responsible.
Effective but ‘not a silver bullet’
Karl Eze – CEO of Point Zenith, a leading drone firm which has contracts with the UK’s Ministry of Defence – said that “no counter UAS [unmanned aircraft system] is a silver bullet”.
“If you have a high value system such as this microwave weapon, it’ll become a high value target and more effort will be used to defeat the counter-UAS,” he said.
“This could be through flying drones very low to the ground, such as fibre optic drones, where they are hard to detect in the radar clutter.
“You’ll also see a growth in ‘counter-counter efforts’, to keep your drones flying against this system. The first thing that comes to mind is maybe the development of ‘faraday cages’ around the drones so that they are less susceptible to electromagnetic waves used in microwaves.”
Eze said that each counter-drone measure has its own vulnerabilities – in this case, the size, weight and power needed to generate the electromagnetic waves.
“It’s going to be a fairly large, cumbersome and vulnerable vehicle or fixed installation,” he said.
“Human ingenuity usually finds a way to defeat most counter measures. On an economic point also, how many of these systems would there be and how scalable is the production?”
Why drones are so important to warfare
Drones have been used to launch attacks by both Russian and Ukrainian troops, and flown over targets to help with planning and intelligence.
Ukraine had to defend against attacks from more than 18,000 drones last year, according to UK defence intelligence.
Drones have caused, or contributed to, 80 per cent of combat casualties in the Ukraine war, according to Roman Kostenko, the chair of the defence and intelligence committee in Ukraine’s parliament.
They have evolved rapidly since the war began, as both sides race to outsmart eachother’s drone technology.
Most recently, fibre optic cables – usually used to deliver broadband to UK homes have been attached top drones to protect their communications and keep them functional.
Ukraine has expanded its arsenal of dronesFirst person view (FPV) drones are of some the most important weapons on the battlefields of Ukraine, used along with drones for gathering intelligence and to launch attacks by both Russian and Ukrainian troops.
But they have a key vulnerability: the link between the drone operator and the device itself.
Drones traditionally use radio signals to send information between the two, transmitting instruction from the pilot to the device, and information back from the drone to the pilot.
But these communications have been subjected to “jamming”, where an enemy system deliberately disrupts the signals governing the drone to render them useless.
Around a year ago, Russia innovated the use of fibre optic cables to communicate between the device and operator – similar to using a trailing landline to relay information, rather than a mobile phone.
This has led to thin wires draped over trees and land across Ukrainian battlefields.
Justin Bronk, a defence technology expert at thinktank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that “high-powered microwave systems” are “potentially a very effective tool for defence against large numbers of [drones] and potentially cruise missiles”.
However, he warned that their “wide cone of effect” could “create more problems than it solves.”
“For certain circumstances, like bases out in the desert, or at a kinetic front line where you’re not hugely concerned about stuff that’s going in the direction of the enemy, or for warships at sea, yes, absolutely, they offer a significant increase in counter-drone capability, but they are not a one-size-fits-all solution,” he told the Financial Times.
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