Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of procuring the radio frequency directed energy weapon capability.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to the continued investment in UK Sovereign Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapons (RFDEW) technology, to provide cutting edge capability to the Armed Forces at pace.The MOD has committed £184 million to Direct Energy Weapon technology over the next three years in order to deliver capability in the early 2030's. Advancing investment in British Industry will develop state-of-the-art capability for the UK Armed Forces, and as the MOD announced in May 2024, we are exploring options to exploit the existing UK developed RFDEW project as a C-UAS Minimum Deployable Capability at increased pace. On specific costs we have done analysis but accurate figures will not be known until designs are finalised, something we continue to work on.