- The UK said it has live-fired its new anti-drone radio weapon that costs only about 10 pence to fire.
- It’s been heralding such weapons as a cheap alternative to missile-based systems for killing drones.
- This weapon, the RFDEW, is said to kill drones from 1,000 meters away in land, air, and sea environments.
The UK Defense Ministry said on Monday that it‘s successfully live-tested its new radio frequency weapon that can take down drone swarms for “less than the cost of a pack of mince pies.”
“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,” it said in a statement. “Where they successfully targeted and engaged Uncrewed Aerial Systems, in a first for the British Armed Forces.”
The system is called the Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon, or RFDEW. The UK says it has a range of up to 1,000 meters, or about 1,093 yards, at an estimated cost of 10 pence, or about $0.13, per shot.
The RFDEW uses high-frequency radio waves to detect, track, and then disable critical electronic components in the drones so that they become immobilized or fall out of the sky.
It’s meant to be versatile. The UK says the RFDEW can be deployed in land, air, and sea environments.
Development of the weapon was announced in May, when officials described it as a cheaper alternative to traditional missile-based systems for fighting drones. The defense ministry said at the time that tests would be carried out over the summer.
The UK said the RFDEW is mostly automated, meaning it can be operated by a single person and mounted onto a military vehicle.
It’s one of London’s answers to the growing prominence of drone warfare, brought to the fore by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where cheap drones have become a primary killing tool in the protracted conflict.
The UK is also developing a vehicle-mounted laser beam weapon that fires shots costing 10 pence each, which it said has a range of 1,000 meters as well.
That weapon was successfully tested too, the ministry said on December 11.
Both systems were developed under a government program that partners with private firms such as Raytheon and Teledyne e2v.
The UK also spent about $126 million developing DragonFire, another laser weapon system that uses high-concentrated energy beams to kill drones at less than $13 a shot.
If these systems can be deployed at scale, their advertised low per-shot cost could be a major advantage for the UK. Traditional anti-drone tech that’s already considered to be in the lower-cost range, such as the expendable Raytheon Coyote, can be priced at about $100,000 per munition.
Militaries want to go far cheaper, amid a heightened awareness that any armed force — from Russian and Ukrainian troops to Yemeni rebels — can deliver deadly payloads at less than $1,000 through commercial drone parts.
The US is developing a weapon similar to the RFDEW that uses microwaves to fry drone parts and disable swarms. It looks like a container with a satellite dish and is called the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR.
In April 2023, the US Air Force said it had successfully tested THOR against a drone swarm.
Such technologies are also becoming more mainstream in Ukraine. Kvertus, a company based in Kyiv, sells a handheld “anti-drone gun” that it says can knock out drones with radio frequencies.
