British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said he wants to speed up the drive to provide the DragonFire long-range laser weapon to Ukraine.
“It doesn’t take much imagination to see how useful this weapon could be in Ukraine, for example,” Sky News quoted UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps as saying.
DragonFire was expected to be commissioned in 2032, but in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence is now accelerating plans to deploy the laser weapon in 2027.
Shapps said the weapon could have ‘major consequences’ for Ukraine, noting that Dragonfire is suitable for use on land, ships and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Last month, the UK Ministry of Defence published footage of the January tests of the DragonFire long-range laser weapon, whose development process was kept secret, on the social networking platform X. The video showed a laser mounted on a warship disabling a boat, blinding a drone and shooting down another. Newsweek reported that London was not yet planning to give this weapon to Ukraine.
