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Gabriele Molinelli

@Gabriel6486983920,073 subscribers

Journalist. The british armed forces history got me into following everything military. Author of #http://ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.com/ Juventus FC fan

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Drones on flat top ships prior to TB3 in Turkey. HMS Argus, 1936: tender conversion for Queen Bee remotely controlled target aircraft. X-47B, US Navy, CVN ops in 2013. ULTRA on HMS Prince of Wales, September 2023. MOJAVE on HMS Prince of Wales, November 2023.

Drones on flat top ships prior to TB3 in Turkey. HMS Argus, 1936: tender conversion for Queen Bee remotely controlled target aircraft. X-47B, US Navy, CVN ops in 2013. ULTRA on HMS Prince of Wales, September 2023. MOJAVE on HMS Prince of Wales, November 2023.

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The MOD has launched Project PANOPTES to deliver Directed Energy weapons for C-UAS in the Land environment. Although they say they are "open" to workable alternatives, de facto the requirement calls for a laser. The project is to develop through 2 phases: P1 will be a 2-stage downselections. P2 will start from the full proposal matured through P1 and Evaluate. Phase 1 is aiming for start November - December this year and last no more than 6 months. The requirements call for a system comprising of Passive RF detection, with the weapon capable of Continuous 100 KW power, with 150 KW peak. The solution must weight no more than 1,200 kg and fit on a 463L NATO pallet (2.74 x 2.24 m). Significantly, among the Standards data/messaging systems it must be integrated with, appears the Modular Integrated Protection System (MIPS), aka the MoD proprietary system for Active Defence of armoured vehicles. As the laser is being required to be "compatible" down the line with installation on suitable Uncrewed Ground Vehicles, you can see the underlying reasoning: MIPS, with its sensors (as we have seen on the AJAX BLACKJAX demonstrator, most notably) sees the incoming drone threat and tasks the accompanying laser with defeat. The kill must happen at ranges of at least 500 meters, to 1+ km ideally. The good: they are now looking for a significantly more powerful laser. The bad: the actual deployment of a laser capability on Land is being slowed down. In December 2024, then Minister Maria Eagle was still promising that Land Directed Energy Weapons would come into service in 2027, effectively on the back of project SWINTON. In June 2025 a Preliminary Market Notice for Land DEW was published. It was supposed to go to tender soon after to field a first few land lasers but, for all i know, it went nowhere. (Unless the MoD bought something from either Raytheon or EOS in secret) Project SWINTON, you might remember, demonstrated a Raytheon laser on a WOLFHOUND during the course of 2024, on the back of contracts signed in 2021. The SWINTON laser is a 15 KW system. It killed BQ-400 target drones at distances of up to 1 km. The palletized laser mount can fit on pickups. Targeting was delivered through the use of BLIGHTER A800 3D radar. PANOPTES wants a far more powerful laser with a similar footprint (and this is by now eminently feasible) but the negative part is that the wait to actually field something will be longer. Assuming this does make it to the field.

Gabriele Molinelli

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