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UK Orders DragonFire Directed-Energy Weapons For Warships After Successful Drone Intercept Trials.
The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed that its DragonFire high-energy laser has destroyed high-speed drones in trials at the Hebrides range and is now moving into its first production phase. A £316 million contract with MBDA UK will deliver ship-fitted systems from 2027, giving the Royal Navy a far cheaper way to counter mass drone and missile attacks than firing scarce, expensive missiles.
On Thursday, 20 November 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence announced that its DragonFire high-energy laser weapon has successfully destroyed high-speed drones during trials at the Hebrides range and has moved into a first production phase, as reported by the press release of the British MoD. Against a backdrop of proliferating drone attacks in recent conflicts and growing pressure on naval air defence systems, London is turning to directed-energy weapons to contain costs and preserve missile stocks. The £316 million contract awarded to MBDA UK to deliver ship-fitted systems from 2027 signals a decision to move lasers from experimental status to front-line capability. For the Royal Navy and NATO partners, this is presented as a key answer to saturation threats from inexpensive unmanned aircraft and missiles.
The DragonFire is a UK‑built, ship‑mounted high‑energy directed‑energy weapon that uses a powerful laser to rapidly disable or destroy incoming high‑speed drones and missiles, offering a lower‑cost, magazine‑preserving defence for naval vessels (Picture Source: Army Recognition Group / UK MoD)
According to the Ministry of Defence, the latest campaign at the MOD’s Hebrides range involved drones capable of flying at around 650 km/h, roughly twice the top speed of a Formula 1 car, and included a UK first in above-the-horizon tracking, targeting and live engagements of such targets. By combining precision tracking sensors, a high-energy laser and Leonardo’s beam director, the system was able to hold the beam on small airborne targets long enough to cause structural failure. These results move DragonFire beyond earlier low-power demonstrations focused on tracking and pointing, and into the realm of repeatable, operationally relevant intercepts.
DragonFire is a ship-borne laser directed-energy weapon being developed for Royal Navy by the UK DragonFire consortium, led by MBDA UK in partnership with Leonardo UK, QinetiQ and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The system features a high-energy fibre-laser source paired with a precision beam director incorporating fast-steering optics and adaptive wavefront control, enabling high-beam quality despite maritime turbulence. Its architecture integrates multi-sensor target acquisition and tracking (radar cueing fused with electro-optical/infrared imaging) and a real-time fire-control computer that computes engagement geometry and thermal deposition. The module also incorporates a dedicated power-conditioning and thermal-management suite sized to support continuous short-burst operations. First revealed as a demonstrator at DSEI 2017, the programme has advanced through iterative design, trials and platform integration under approximately £100 million of joint industry-and-MOD investment. Trials in the Outer Hebrides in 2022 demonstrated tracking of airborne and surface threats, and in January 2024 the system achieved the UK’s first high-power firing against aerial targets. Subsequent high-power engagements against unmanned aerial systems confirmed the laser’s ability to deliver sufficient energy on target within tactical timeframes, validating beam control, pointing stability and shipboard command-and-control integration.
The current MoD announcement marks the transition from demonstrator to what officials describe as a “Minimum Deployable Capability” for the fleet. Under the £316 million contract, MBDA UK will deliver DragonFire systems to be fitted first on a Type 45 destroyer by 2027, a schedule the government says is roughly five years faster than originally planned. The integration onto a Type 45 is particularly significant: these ships already carry the Sea Viper (PAAMS) missile system for area air defence, and DragonFire is expected to complement rather than replace missiles, providing a short-notice, low-cost option for certain classes of threats, especially drones and potentially some guided munitions in their terminal phase.
From a capability standpoint, the system’s most striking figures are economic rather than purely technical. The MoD assesses that each laser engagement costs on the order of £10, compared with surface-to-air missiles that can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds per shot, depending on type and configuration. Officials also claim that DragonFire can put sufficient energy on target to hit an object the size of a £1 coin at a range of one kilometre. In a context where navies face the prospect of repeated drone and missile barrages against warships and merchant traffic, the combination of high accuracy, deep “magazine” (limited mainly by power supply and thermal management) and very low marginal cost per shot is the main comparative advantage of directed-energy weapons over conventional interceptors.
Compared with traditional close-in weapon systems (CIWS) and short-range missiles such as those already deployed on Royal Navy surface combatants, DragonFire brings different strengths and constraints. Missile and gun systems offer all-weather performance and can engage targets at varying altitudes, but at high financial and logistical cost per intercept and with finite onboard stocks. Lasers, by contrast, operate at the speed of light, can be retasked rapidly from target to target and, as long as power and cooling are available, offer a near-continuous defensive capacity. They are, however, sensitive to atmospheric conditions, line of sight and obscurants such as smoke or heavy rain. For this reason, DragonFire is best understood as an additional layer in a multi-tier air and missile defence architecture rather than a complete replacement for kinetic effectors.
The programme is also being framed as a test case for a more agile approach to defence procurement. As part of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), DragonFire is described as the first high-power laser capability entering service from a European nation and one of the most advanced directed-energy weapon programmes in NATO. The SDR allocates nearly £1 billion in this Parliament alone to UK directed-energy weapon work, including high-energy lasers and high-power radio-frequency systems, with DragonFire as the flagship project. MBDA, QinetiQ and Leonardo will continue to refine the system in service, following a spiral development model rather than waiting for a fully finalised specification before fielding.
Industry partners highlight both the technological innovation and economic benefits of the DragonFire laser program. Key figures emphasize that the laser will keep the UK at the forefront of NATO technology while boosting regional industry and jobs. For example, Luke Pollard noted that the high-power laser reinforces the UK’s leadership and promotes economic growth, with around 590 jobs supported across the country, including 200 in Scotland, 185 in the South West, and 75 in the East of England. Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander underscored Scotland’s role as a critical hub for defence innovation, reflecting the national security importance and economic value of Scottish expertise. Leonardo’s Mark Stead pointed to decades of laser research culminating in DragonFire’s beam director, while QinetiQ’s Steve Wadey highlighted the successful collaboration between government and industry as a model for delivering disruptive, next-generation military technology at pace. Overall, the program’s strategic and economic impact showcases how defence procurement acts as a tool for regional growth, skill development, and sustaining critical high-tech capabilities that support exports and long-term industrial capacity.
From a strategic and geostrategic perspective, the deployment of DragonFire on a Royal Navy destroyer has several implications. At the operational level, it offers a tool to counter massed drone attacks, a threat that has escalated in recent years in the Black Sea, Red Sea and Middle East, and which could be replicated against NATO naval task groups in contested littoral regions. By reducing the cost of intercepting low-cost unmanned aerial systems, the UK aims to reverse the cost-exchange ratio currently exploited by state and non-state actors who can launch cheap drones against high-value platforms. For NATO, the system adds a novel capability to the alliance’s integrated air and missile defence, and positions the UK as a key European reference point for the practical integration of high-energy lasers at sea.
In budgetary terms, DragonFire is moving from a long-running technology demonstrator to a funded capability line within the Royal Navy equipment plan. The earlier £100 million invested in the demonstrator phase, combined with SDR’s near-£1 billion portfolio for directed-energy weapons, created the conditions for this £316 million production contract. The latest award, granted to MBDA UK, is therefore both the most recent and the largest single contract directly linked to DragonFire. It builds on the earlier UK DragonFire consortium agreement and is intended to provide the first ship-borne systems, while leaving scope for subsequent contracts to extend the technology to other naval, land or possibly air platforms once maturity and doctrine are proven.
The successful high-speed drone intercepts and the substantial production contract mark a turning point for DragonFire, moving it from experimental status to an emerging operational tool in the Royal Navy’s layered defence. If the system performs in service as it has in trials, it will not only alter the economics of shipborne air defence but also signal that European navies are ready to integrate directed-energy weapons alongside missiles and guns. For the UK, DragonFire is becoming both a symbol and a test case: a symbol of ambition to stay at the forefront of defence technology within NATO, and a test of whether new procurement approaches can deliver complex capabilities quickly enough to match the evolving threat from drones and precision weapons.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.