The UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is reportedly planning to launch a competition this year for the development of directed energy weapons (DEW).
An MoD spokeswoman was quoted by DefenseNews as saying: "This four-year project aims to understand what potential there is for high energy laser technology to be used in future military capabilities.
"The project aims to assess a number of sub-systems that will potentially be incorporated into a working developmental system for testing.
"We intend to conduct outdoor testing at a range, but exact details are yet to be determined."
The £30m project is being pursued by MBDA, Lockheed Martin UK, Qinetiq, Thales UK and Raytheon UK among others, and a winning contractor is expected to be selected before April 2015.
In 2013, unnamed Thales UK executives told the publication that the company is planning to complete the development of a production-ready laser-powered soft-kill system capable of defeating electro-optically guided sensors on missiles in the next three years.
Thales has been developing the system for several years, but started searching for an international partner after a lack of funding support from the MoD.
MBDA's German subsidiary also possesses extensive laser DEW experience, having tested a counter rocket, artillery and mortar system, using 40kW of laser-power in 2012.
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