Laser weapons for Britain’s Armed Forces are one step closer to becoming a reality following the awarding of a £67 million contract. Defence firm QinetiQ has signed a deal with MBDA to continue developing and producing the laser source of the DragonFire weapon system.

Successful trials of DragonFire were completed in the Hebrides last year, with the highly accurate laser weapon downing high-speed drones. Two Royal Navy ships are set to be fitted with the weapons from 2027 as part of a £316 million contract with MBDA announced in 2025. Steve Wadey, Group Chief Executive Officer at QinetiQ, said: “We are proud of the vital role we continue to play in delivering Europe’s leading laser weapon technology to our warfighters.

“This contract is a testament to QinetiQ’s expertise in developing, testing and engineering novel and disruptive technologies at pace, and is a welcome milestone as industry and government work together to accelerate the adoption of laser-directed energy weapons.”

At just £10 per shot, DragonFire is seen as a highly cost-effective option for short-range air defence.

Traditional missiles can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of pounds per shot — missiles used by the UK's Type 45 destroyers to down Houthi drones in 2024 have an estimated value of more than £1 million each.

It means DragonFire offers a more economical solution to threats such as drones, which can be extremely cheap to build and have become an increasingly important part of conflict, as seen in Ukraine.

The system is accurate enough to hit a £1 coin from a kilometre (0.62 miles) away and has proved effective against UAVs.

Trials in November saw DragonFire down high-speed drones capable of speeds of up to 403 miles per hour — almost double the speed of an F1 car.

The weapon will be fitted to two of the Navy’s six Type 45s, five years ahead of the originally planned.

As well as its cost advantages, DragonFire also provides an unlimited number of ‘shots’ without the dependency of limited stockpiles, meaning extended deployment times and less logistics.

Some 120 QinetiQ jobs are being supported through its DragonFire contract with MBDA, mainly in the west and south of England.