Defence Online

DASA seeks innovations to develop the first generation of directed energy weapons

Land October 4, 2022

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched an Innovation Focus Area (IFA) called Making Science Fiction a Reality: Future Directed Energy Weapons.

This IFA is seeking innovations that will help contribute to the development of the first generation of deployed Directed Energy Weapons across Land, Sea and Air domains.

This IFA is run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) are systems capable of discrete target selection that emit laser or Radio Frequency (RF) energy as the primary means to cause disruptive, damaging or destructive effects on equipment or facilities.

The vision of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is to make Directed Energy Weapons a realistic choice for our armed forces, which can contribute to a decisive edge and sustain strategic advantage.

This IFA is looking for proposals that enhance the performance and/or reduce the size, mass and volume of the system and subsystem areas associated with laser and RF Directed Energy Weapons. For example, innovations that improve:

• laser and RF Source technology
• system automation
• advanced power and cooling technologies that can be ultimately integrated onto military platforms
• beam control
• target detection
• battle Damage indication
• test and evaluation

DASA Defence and Security Accelerator Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Directed Energy Weapons Dstl MOD

Post written by: Matt Brown