War tech update: UK navy to deploy DragonFire laser weapon

April 06, 2026

tom's Hardware reports that the Royal Navy will start equipping its Type 45 destroyers with this new laser weapon in 2027. The weapon can target hit a coin-sized target travelling 400 mph from one kilometer away. DragonFire is a 50 kW-class fiber-combined laser developed by a consortium of UK defense companies. Each shot uses about $13 in energy. That makes it less expensive to shoot the little bugger than a fancy cocktail costs in most bars. It can be used to obliterate incoming drones before they hit the destroyer.

DragonFire blasting a speck of dust a half-mile away

Just kidding, it hit a flying target bigger than dust

As we would expect, DragonFire uses a spectral beam-combining architecture that merges multiple glass-fiber laser sources into a single beam with near diffraction-limited quality. Yikes!! That's really good!! It has a stabilized turret that houses the beam director, electro-optical sensors, and a secondary tracking laser for continuous target illumination.

For context, Aster interceptor missiles fired from the Type 45's existing Sea Viper system cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per shot. Obviously DragonFire is a waaaay cheaper weapon against low-cost drone threats. Since laser system runs on electrical power, its engagement (kill) capacity is limited by onboard power generation and cooling.

The UK's Ministry of Defense the MoD is considering land-based and air-based applications. That might include integration of DragonFire on Wolfhound armored vehicles and future GCAP fighter jets currently under development.