With time frames shortening on the prospect of conflict spreading in Europe, a high profile former minister has called for massed ranks of drones to be built for the British military to preserve combatants’ lives and make up for a shortfall in weapons.
James Cartlidge, the UK’s shadow defence secretary, told The National that greater use should be made of lasers to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and low-grade missiles such as those used by the Houthis in their attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The former minister for defence procurement also suggested that the technology and expertise from non-military companies should be harnessed to rapidly develop battle-winning weapons.
Mass attack
Following the “astonishing” UAV advances in Ukraine, Mr Cartlidge ordered a defence drone strategy during his year at the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
He said that several drones “gives you absolute terms of mass because of swarming” as well as the ability to produce them “relatively quickly and cheaply”.
It also had the benefit of “boosting the lethality and survivability of the existing people and capabilities that you've got”.
While western militaries could not disregard conventional weapons such as tanks, aircraft and warships “the uncrewed sphere offers a chance to really deliver a form of mass”, he argued.
While traditional fighting will continue – as proved by Ukraine’s grim trench warfare – there will also be “an extremely contested air domain” with both fighters and drones battling for superiority.
Ukraine had also demonstrated the importance of electronic warfare – with the Russians able to jam sophisticated US-made artillery rounds – as well as space with Kyiv’s defence highly dependent on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system.
Another motivation was that the war demonstrated after years of cuts and fighting counter-insurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the British ranks had thinned. “We'd lost mass, no question about it,” he said.
Star Wars reality
The science fiction of Star Wars is soon to become a reality on the battlefield with laser warfare introduced at scale, with the former minster pushing hard for the new technology.
With Israel expecting to field its new “Iron Beam” laser system which can shoot down incoming missiles next year, in two years British destroyers should have the similar “Dragon Fire” capability.
“I massively accelerated the Dragon Fire procurement that gives you the potential ability to intercept drones and conserve your air defence missile stocks in the process,” said Mr Cartlidge, 50, speaking at his office in parliament.
He ordered the rapid introduction as the prospect of the Houthis “getting hold of ballistic missiles from Iran and firing them at our ships” was a “clear and present danger”.
On land, Britain has also demonstrated it is moving fast after its first successful test last month of a vehicle-mounted laser.
The as yet unnamed system, mounted on a Wolfhound armoured vehicle, used a high energy beam to destroy all drone targets it locked on to during a test in Wales, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
The weapon works by directing a sensor-guided beam of intense infrared light at its target. The MoD said laser weapons could be a cost-effective alternative to some current weaponry because they are “virtually limitless” in terms of ammunition supply.
Tech bros to war
Like Ukraine, Britain is now turning towards sophisticated start-ups to develop new, imaginative ways of fighting.
“You need to have this very strong relationship between your defence industry and not just defence SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise) but companies who have portable dual-use, tech but not necessarily the military application,” he said.
Defence needed to move into the “science space” so that it could “develop cutting edge capability that can be quickly developed into the battlefield”.
Those smaller companies could also help bolster the defence industrial base which in Europe the Ukraine war has proven to be lacking.
“Ultimately it becomes a war of logistics and industrial production,” he said. “We have got to outproduce our adversaries.”
But this needed Europe to be united to “pull together, increase spending and raise industrial production”.
Mass drones could soon arrive after Britain has committed to raising its defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP in a timeline to be announced this year.
“The more war-ready you are, in deterrent terms, your adversary sees that you are stepping up, and in absolute terms, you have the production,” said Mr Cartlidge. “You need to maintain a degree of war readiness, which we had assumed was no longer necessary.”
Europe and Nato will also remain dependent on US military power, but the politician did not think US President Donald Trump would withdraw support.
“I've seen nothing so far from Trump to suggest he's going to be anything other than a very strong ally of European Nato, as the US, always has been,” he said.
