Successful live-fire trial for laser self-protection system

The laser is being designed to be fitted to RAF aircraft including the intelligence gathering Shadow R2 and A400M transporter.  

During the trial at the Vidsel Test Range, the system completely defeated a range of infrared heat-seeking missiles being fired simultaneously. 

All the threats were defeated using a laser, which has been designed and developed by the Team Pellonia partnership between Leonardo UK, Thales UK, and the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

In a statement, defence secretary, John Healey said: “Identifying, tracking and defeating threats from the air in seconds is crucial to having the edge over those who try to do us harm.  

“We’re equipping our Armed Forces with the very latest technology to keep them safe and give them the advantage on operations. 

“This high-tech laser is another excellent example of joint working between our Dstl experts and the UK’s defence industry.”

The system uses Thales’s Elix-IR threat warning system that detects and identifies the launch of missiles using a series of algorithms to filter out background clutter so that only valid threats are tracked, classified and declared.