Britain's MOD awards 37-mln-USD contract to build laser gun

Britain's Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced Thursday it has awarded a 30-million-pound(37.22 million U.S. dollars) contract for the building and development of a laser gun prototype demonstrator to a European consortium.

Known as the UK Dragonfire consortium, the group is being led by British defense company MBDA and includes defense companies from across Britain and Europe, including QinetiQ, Leonardo-Finmeccanica GKN, Arke, BAE Systems and Marshall ADG.

The project will assess innovative Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) technologies and approaches, culminating in a demonstration of the laser system in 2019.

The contract will assess how the system can pick up and track targets at various ranges and in varied weather conditions over land and water, to allow precision use, said the MOD in a statement issued in London.

Laser weapons have the potent be used to destroy drone aircraft, missiles, mortars, roadside bombs and a host of other threats, say defense experts.

"The project will inform decisions on the future of the program and help the MOD's Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) establish a road map to an in-service capability. If it is successful, the first laser weapons would come into service in the mid-2020s," said a MOD spokesman.

Minister for Defense Procurement, Harriet Baldwin said:"The MOD's investment in such innovative solutions demonstrates how the government's equipment plan, supported by a rising Defense budget, is ensuring our armed forces have the most effective and innovative capability available."

Dstl's Peter Cooper said:" This is a significant demonstration program aimed at maturing our understanding of what is still an immature technology. It draws on innovative research into high power lasers so as to understand the potential of the technology to provide a more effective response to the emerging threats that could be faced by UK armed forces." Endit