Britain is preparing to deploy a laser weapon capable of destroying airborne targets at roughly £10 per shot - a fraction of the cost of any missile-based air defense system currently in service.
As "Hvylya" reports, citing the Financial Times, the UK Ministry of Defence plans to field the DragonFire laser on Royal Navy ships by 2027. The weapon can fire at any target visible in the air with accuracy equivalent to hitting a pound coin from a kilometer away, according to the MoD.
The industry team behind DragonFire is led by MBDA and includes Qinetiq and Leonardo. Paul Gray, head of business development for advanced weapons at Qinetiq, said the appeal of lasers is that they can fire indefinitely as long as they have power - unlike missiles, which are gone after a single shot.
The push for laser weapons has accelerated as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have laid bare the cost trap of traditional air defense. The massive spending imbalance between cheap Iranian drones and the expensive interceptors used to destroy them has made directed-energy systems a priority across multiple governments.
DragonFire is not alone in the race. Israel's Rafael has already delivered its Iron Beam laser to the IDF. France's Thales is leading a consortium developing "RapidDestroyer," which uses high-power radio frequency to disable drone electronics. RTX and MBDA are both investing heavily in the technology, betting that directed-energy weapons will become the backbone of future air defense.