New UK weapon uses radio waves to destroy drone swarms at 13 cents per shot
The RFDEW is an all-around weapon capable of tackling land, air, and sea threats.
The United Kingdom has announced that its soldiers have successfully tested a Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) that can take down a drone swarm within seconds.
The RFDEW system is being touted as a game-changing weapon that can turn off drone swarms using radio waves for a small sum of money per shot.
Further, the UK Ministry of Defense states that it is an all-around weapon capable of tackling land, air, and sea threats.
USPs of the RFDEW anti-drone system
The new weapon system tested by the British soldiers is different from the DragonFire. The DragonFire is a laser-directed energy weapon that uses a laser beam of light to kill unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drone swarms.
In stark contrast, the RFDEW uses radio waves to take down UAVs.
“The weapon uses high frequency waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside devices such as drones, causing them to be immobilized or fall out of the sky,” the UK Ministry of Defense said in the release.
It also stated that the RFDEW can neutralize targets in a range of 0.62 miles (1 km) immediately.
It is also quite inexpensive as compared to other counter-drone measures, as it can tackle drones at a cost of roughly just 13 cents (10 pence in UK currency) per shot.