Soldiers in the British Army will trial a high-power radio frequency weapon that can knock out an enemy’s electricity and disrupt their military operations without them knowing the cause of the problem.
Under Project Ealing, scientists inside the high-security Porton Down research laboratories have developed a weapon that can in effect switch off devices reliant on electricity such as computers, telephones and drones.
Experts compared the technology to that used in the film Ocean’s Eleven, where con artists use a device called “the pinch” to help them access a vault containing money in Las Vegas.
The device detonates an intense electromagnetic pulse that blacks out the city’s power grid for a brief period. The technology developed by British scientists is designed to switch off specific targets such as drone swarms or communications between enemy units, however, the kit is based on the same principles.
Matt Cork, an expert in directed energy weapons at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, otherwise known as Porton Down, compared the kit to a “sledgehammer” that could override circuits and hit its target with as much power as possible to “turn tech off”.
In a rare briefing to journalists held at the Porton Down site near Salisbury, Wiltshire, he said: “Imagine a room full of computers, or a telephone exchange, anything that has got electricity flying through it, you can disrupt it.”
He said that the radio frequency weapon, which will be fitted to army support vehicles and trialled by 7th Air Defence Group beginning in the summer, was about targeting the enemy with non-lethal means and without “blowing stuff up”.
He continued: “Just turning things off when we choose to turn things off leads to a potential where actually they [the enemy] stop trusting their own equipment. It creates that element of doubt in their ability to use their equipment when they need to use it.”
The weapon generates an electromagnetic pulse that couples with electronic circuits, overloads them and switches devices off.
Probable scenarios include loading the weapon on to the back of an army vehicle and using it to protect a base from drone attacks or protect a convoy that is moving from incoming threats from the air.
Scientists have studied the impact of the technology on pacemakers and believe there is a risk that it could interrupt their ability to work, although the research is continuing.
Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said during a visit that directed energy weapons such as Project Ealing would have a “large part to play in future conflict”.
He also suggested that a military laser, known as the DragonFire weapon, could be rushed on to the front line in Ukraine to take down Russian drones.
The laser weapon, which is expected to be ready for deployment by 2027 at the latest, could have “huge ramifications” for the conflict in Europe, the defence secretary said.
Royal Navy ships will be fitted with the equipment, which could save hundreds of millions of pounds. Reforms aimed at speeding up procurement mean the laser, which was originally set to be launched in 2032, will be operational five years earlier than planned, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Shapps said he would check whether the pace could be increased further “for Ukrainians perhaps to get their hands on it”. He added: “I’ve come down to speed up the production of the DragonFire laser system because I think given that there’s two big conflicts on, one sea-based, one in Europe, this could have huge ramifications to have a weapon capable particularly of taking down drones.”
The range of the lasers is classified but the beams burn through their targets at a temperature of 3,000C and take only a second to destroy drones. This produces an “instant vaporisation” effect, according to Dr Tim Kendall, the chief physicist on the project.
The MoD hopes the DragonFire system, which costs only £10 per shot, will offer a cheaper alternative to missiles by carrying out tasks such as shooting down attack drones.