HUNDREDS of jobs could be created at a new anti-drone hub in Scotland designed to help meet the growing demand for laser weapons which target small attack drones.
Raytheon UK, the defence and intelligence technology firm, said the war in Ukraine has highlighted the threat posed by drones.
The firm’s president of electronic warfare systems, Annabel Flores, said that “demand is spiking for cost-effective lasers” able to defeat “asymmetric” threats from drones, rockets and mortars.
The planned “advanced laser integration centre” will be a European hub for high-energy laser weaponry, the firm added, and will be based in Livingston, West Lothian.
The centre will focus on the testing, fielding and maintenance of defensive high-energy laser weapons.
It comes after the Ministry of Defence announced that a £160 million contract had been awarded to Raytheon UK to support the training and development of Royal Navy personnel at Scotland’s HM Naval Base Clyde.
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Britain’s armed forces began trials last year using laser weapons.
Alex Rose-Parfitt, Raytheon UK’s engineering director, described how the programme involves a “very high-technology readiness level system that we are bringing into the UK to really allow the UK armed forces to start understanding how they are going to use that system, and start driving their requirements so that we end up procuring the right thing”.
He said: “That programme is going exceptionally well and the next phase in that is we want to establish that UK footprint but also to be able to expand that out across the rest of the markets in particular within Europe.
“So what we announced was around that advanced laser integration centre that we are going to base out of Livingston, and if you think about how that programme starts to mature, the UK starts to understand what it wants with its laser systems, starts to procure that as the main programme.
“Establishing that hub concretes why Raytheon thinks it is an important and strategic investment to have that in Scotland.”
Mr Rose-Parfitt added: “The key bit for me around it is, if you think of any of those optic systems, you’ve got to be able to do some level of tests, calibration, support, maintain and then develop from that.”
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It means the firm “will then be able to upskill individuals, create more highly skilled jobs within Scotland, employ more engineers on the back of it and expand from that”.
Raytheon said the initial job creation "at this point is relatively small but this is a long term project so as the take up for the tech increases there’ll be more jobs created", adding this could potentially be in the "hundreds".
Mr Rose-Parfitt said: “We want to be able to expand that facility as we see demand coming forward.”
The centre will support existing programs and it will be capable of scaling up as the quantity of fielded systems expands.
The new regional hub will also help to meet the accelerated delivery schedules customers are requesting and ensure that fielded systems can be quickly maintained and repaired.
Michael Hofle, senior director of high energy lasers at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies business, said: “We’ve all seen that asymmetric threats like drones, rockets, artillery and mortars are a serious problem, and demand is spiking for cost-effective lasers to defeat them.”
US headquartered Raytheon Technologies has licenses to export various configurations of its technology in the UK, Europe and around the world.
Raytheon UK was last year awarded a demonstrator contract to provide a high-energy laser weapon system to the MoD, to be installed on the UK Wolfhound land vehicle.
The demonstrator and the laser centre reflect a “continued commitment to working with the MoD”, the company said.
John Gallagher, of Raytheon UK, said experts project lasers could make up as much as 30 per cent of air defence infrastructure in future.
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