Drone warfare is accelerating the global race for directed energy weapons. In the United Kingdom, Thales UK’s RFDEW has just neutralized 80 drones in a single test. Between DragonFire, American Leonidas and anti-swarm microwaves, a new military ecosystem is taking shape at high speed.
In April 2026, in Pershore (Gloucestershire), the RapidDestroyer directed energy weapon system – officially designated RFDEW for Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon – neutralized 80 drones in flight during a test session conducted on behalf of the British Ministry of Defense. Defense. This performance marks a decisive step towards the operational deployment of the system within the brigades of the British Army.
Faced with the proliferation of commercial military drones, particularly in the Ukrainian theater, Western armies are seeking less costly responses than traditional missiles. RFDEW addresses this need by disrupting and destroying critical electronic components onboard drones, forcing them to crash. With a cost per shot estimated at around 10 pence, it offers a radical economic advantage against kinetic interceptors.
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A game-changing four-panel antenna
The performance is based on a major hardware evolution: engineers replaced the original antenna with a new four-panel architecture, which improves beam focusing and concentrates more energy on the target, simultaneously increasing the effective range. With the old configuration, the RFDEW already achieved an effective range of one kilometer. The system further benefits from a high degree of automation allowing a single operator to detect, track and engage air, sea and land targets.
RFDEW is being developed by a consortium led by Thales UK, bringing together QinetiQ, Teledyne e2v and Horiba Mira, a specialist in automotive and defense engineering. The program is funded by the British MoD, with no official commissioning timetable specified at this stage.
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Global strategic issue
This result comes as the directed energy arms race intensifies globally. In the United Kingdom, the DragonFire consortium – led by MBDA with Leonardo and QinetiQ – won a 316 million pound contract in November 2025 to integrate its laser on a Type 45 destroyer from 2027. In the United States, Epirus’ Leonidas has demonstrated in January 2026 its ability to neutralize drones guided by optical fiber, immune to classic jamming. In this rapidly structuring ecosystem, the Thales UK consortium positions itself as one of the most advanced players in the anti-swarm microwave weapons segment. The next step announced is an integration phase on military vehicles in real operational conditions.
