Next year, a low-cost anti-drone weapon may be available

The head of the UK-based company that is spearheading this development says that a cheap weapon capable of taking down multiple drones simultaneously by disrupting their electronic systems could be available next year.

Alex Cresswell is the chair and chief executive officer of Thales UK. He said that the new radio frequency-directed energy weapon (RFDEW), which has been field tested by the UK military during the summer, will be ready to use “quite soon”.

“It’s a big jump to go from something that is working in the real world on Salisbury Plain, to something you send to Ukraine. Cresswell said in an interview that it’s only a jump of a year, not many years.

Could the system we demonstrated be fielded [as soon as next year] by someone? He added: “Yes, it is possible.”

Thales UK, a British subsidiary of France’s defence and technology group Thales, is the leader in the development of this weapon, as part of a consortium of industrial companies under contract with Ministry of Defence. The UK government would decide when and where the system should be deployed.

The system, which costs only 10p per usage and has a range up to 1km will be a cheaper option to the traditional missile air defense systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollar. The technology is mounted on military vehicles, and it uses a mobile source of power to produce radiofrequency waves or pulses that interfere with electronic targets.

Cresswell said that the industry has been working for decades on countermeasures to prevent incoming attacks. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both sides have heavily relied on Drones for aerial attacks, which has spurred investment by governments and industry.

He added that people were trying to find weapons that “provide a much greater combat mass for a lower cost”.

Thales is the largest investor in France and generated €18.4bn of revenue in 2023. It has been recruiting globally. Sales in the UK where the company employs over 7,000 people have increased by 20 percent over the last two years, reaching just over £1.1bn at the end of 2023.

Cresswell predicted that sales in the UK would increase by another 10% this year, as the company will benefit from increased government orders. The company manufactures missiles and launchers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It also provides sonar systems to the Royal Navy nuclear submarines.

The UK Ministry of Defence has supplied missiles manufactured in Belfast to Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine not only depleted the weapons stocks of governments, but also showed that many were inadequate to deal with a long intense war.

The output at the Belfast facility, where Thales manufactures the Starstreak air defence system for short range and assembles Saab NLAW Anti-tank System, has increased by twofold in the last 18 months, reaching its highest level over the last 20 years. Cresswell stated that Thales will double production again in the next two-year period to meet demand.

He said that there has been a “seismic change” in the way weapons are procured. “Much more emphasis is being placed on building in resilience, capacity, and the ability of scaling up”, he added.