The Ministry of Defense wants to develop laser weapons. The General Directorate of Armament and Material (DGAM) is working on a project valued at 10.8 million euros for the design of a Laser Weapon Instrument Demonstrator (DIAL).
The tender has recently been published on the Contracting Platform. According to the scarce information available, it is already in the preliminary evaluation phase, therefore, the company or entity awarded will soon be known. DIAL is the first major project, by budget, focused specifically on the development of laser weapons.
The Annual Defense Contracting Plan (Pacdef) offers some more clues about this project. The document includes a program with the same amount as the one now launched for the development of a weapon against drones with a power of up to 35 kw. Everything indicates that this DIAL project is the one that appears in the Pacdef.
In Spain, the Navy has already made it clear that it wants to equip its future F-110 frigates with laser weapons for air defense. The Ministry of Defense has already financed R+D projects in this area in recent years through the Coincident program of the General Directorate of Armament and Material (DGAM). The Pulsed Lasers Center of Salamanca has several lines of research open for the development of high-power laser-directed energy weapons and Spanish companies such as Aertec have participated in European projects for the design of this type of weapons.