In the last decade of August in France, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) placed an order with a consortium of companies consisting of MBDA, Safran Electronics and Defense, Thales and Cilas for a laser weapon system demonstrator named Système laser de défense de nouvelle génération (Syderal), designed for combating drones (C-UAS) and for short-range air defence.
Such Syderal demonstrator will serve the DGA in evaluating the effectiveness of the laser weapon in neutralising tactical drones, rockets, mortar shells, and loitering munition (C-UAS/RAM), with the objective of deploying a large-scale operational system to the French Armed Forces by the beginning of the next decade.
The Syderal will have a power of several tens of kilowatts, and will utilize innovative technologies that will allow combining and focusing laser energy to engage and particularly knock down tactical drones with utmost efficiency.
Based on a scalable and modular architecture, usable during day and night, Syderal is designed to have compact dimensions relative to the expected power.
In the intentions of DGA and the French Armed Forces, the Syderal demonstrator will represent a significant initial step to generate a very high power and to develop operational systems capable of tackling more complex threats like missiles.
Source and image credit @ Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA)
