Laser weapons are seen as a potential low-cost alternative to missiles for shooting down drones.

The UK has successfully fired a high-power laser weapon against an aerial target for the first time in a trial.

It is hoped that the test will pave the way for a low-cost alternative to missiles to shoot down targets like drones.

The DragonFire weapon is precise enough to hit a £1 coin from a kilometre away, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says.

  • gregorumEnglish
    1•6 months ago

    At the same time, you don’t have to worry about the travel time of the projectile because it’s instant you also don’t have to worry about things like air, causing a projectile to drift because there is no projectile. All you need is direct line of sight.

    • DarkThoughts
      1•6 months ago

      That's pretty irrelevant when you saturate the air with rapidly fired shotgun like projectiles. You have a big cloud of submunitions that the target has to get through.