The future of ‘invisible war’ has been trialled by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) using emerging and next generation electromagnetic (EM) concepts.

Announcing the trials, the UK Government said that superiority in EM environments is crucial to modern combat, where overwhelming adversaries by degrading command and control systems can provide battlefield commanders with strategic advantages.

In a demonstration of prototype EM weapons, Dstl’s ‘Spectral Prophet’ trial combined previously separate disciplines, with the Government claiming that this proved emerging EM technology can be integrated in future defence, including both deception and countermeasures.

The Government said that by sharing data, status and tasking across a distributed command and control infrastructure, radio frequency transceivers could be used to better effect, while combining data from multiple sensors and effectors can automate processes, giving commanders more strategic awareness and operational advantage.

The results of the trial will now help inform decisions around the Strategic Defence and Security Review, in which the Government commits to the assessment of emerging technologies and weapon systems to inform the UK’s defence planning and the defence equipment programmes.

The use of emerging tech for military purposes has been growing over the past year, with Dstl unveiling details last week of a new “ground-breaking” quantum atomic clock that will be deployable on military operations within the next five years.

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Dstl said that the device, the first of its kind to be built in the UK, offers a “leap forward” in improving intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance by decreasing the reliance on GPS technology, which can be disrupted and blocked by adversaries via jamming.   

Meanwhile, in December, Dstl collaborated on a new high-energy laser weapon system which managed to successfully destroy flying drones during Army trials, while the MoD was most recently encouraged by the UK parliament’s Defence Committee to build its capabilities within AI combat.