The Ministry of Defence is exploring whether laser weapons could bolster UK air defences, as officials look at new ways to protect military bases and critical infrastructure from drone threats.
According to The Times, the MoD is exploring how directed-energy weapons might be adapted for homeland air defence as part of a £20 million investment in laser technology. The work would build on the DragonFire programme, the UK’s flagship laser weapon effort, which is already due to be fitted to Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers from 2027.
DragonFire has been under development for years and is now approaching deployment. Backed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and UK industry partners — the defence tech firms involved are QinetiQ, Leonardo and MBDA — the system has demonstrated the ability to track and destroy drones and other fast-moving aerial targets with striking accuracy.
Its development also underscores the drastic change in unit economics that comes into play when upgrading to newer technology and newer kinds of hardware — not counting the investment in R&D that goes into new systems, or into legacy ones. During trials, the Royal Navy said it has been shown to hit a target the size of a £1 coin from a kilometre away, while costing around £10 per shot. By comparison, the Sea Viper missiles carried by Type 45 destroyers cost in the region of £1 million each.
Under a defence deal worth more than £300 million, DragonFire is expected to be installed on the destroyers from 2027, giving the ships a new, low-cost option for countering drones and subsonic missile threats at sea.
The additional work now under consideration would examine whether laser systems, likely at lower power, could be used on land to defend selected sites as part of a layered air defence approach.
It is expected to be the first high-power laser weapon in service with any European nation, and the programme will create or sustain nearly 600 jobs across the UK, according to the Royal Navy.
Interest in such capabilities has grown as European governments report an increase in suspicious drone activity near airports, air bases, and other sensitive locations. Western officials have increasingly pointed to drones as a favoured tool in so-called grey-zone operations, where states apply pressure without crossing the threshold of open conflict. Israel’s recent rollout of its Iron Beam laser defence system has further focused attention on how lasers might complement traditional missile defences.
However, as one senior British defence figure told The Times, the UK’s larger geographic scale makes an Iron Beam-style nation-wide laser shield unrealistic, and laser weapons are more plausibly part of ‘point defence’ around key sites.
The MoD didn’t immediately respond to Resilience Media’s questions, but in a statement cited by The Times, officials said laser weapon technology offered “significant potential” across defence and civil applications.
“We are actively exploring opportunities, particularly in counter-drone systems,” the MoD said. “We are further investing to complement DragonFire, ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of this technology into the future.”
While officials stress the work remains exploratory, the direction of travel is clear: lasers are no longer a distant concept, but an emerging part of the UK’s thinking on future air defence.
