The early market engagement follows the first-ever UK demonstration of a land-based laser directed energy weapon in October 2024. 

UK Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) is consulting industry ahead of a future ground-based laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) tender notice. 

According to a preliminary market engagement notice, published on 13 June, DE&S aims to understand the level of maturity of LDEW systems capable of destroying UAS at ranges over 1km.  

The deadline for proposals is 11 July. DE&S estimates that a tender notice will be released on 28 July, with the contract expected to last just eight months, between 1 August 2025 and 31 March 2026.  

The LDEW system should include the effector, power, cooling and a sensor component.  

DE&S has a GBP20 million budget for “multiple systems”, with a firm requirement that the system must “be hosted on a land vehicle platform”.  

Furthermore, the procurement organisation welcomes collaborative proposals with several partners.  

“The description is deliberately high level and outcome based, so as not to unduly limit the use cases or technologies to which responses might refer”, the notice states. 

In essence, DE&S is looking to assess the maturity, capability, availability and cost of LDEW systems, prior to issuing a specific tender. 

Suppliers with existing security clearances will be able to attend one-to-one sessions between 16 June and 11 July. Depending on the number of industry responses, a wider market engagement day may also be held.  

UK directed energy weapons 

The UK has been developing directed energy weapons of various configurations in the past few years, prizing their precision, low cost per shot, and ability to destroy targets at the speed of light. 

In January 2024, it was revealed that the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) had worked with MBDA, Leonardo, and QinetiQ to test its DragonFire directed energy weapon.  

Months later, in July 2024, DE&S trialled the use of a “high-powered laser weapon” for the first time on a British Army armoured vehicle. The test, which was conducted at a facility in Porton Down, saw the system track and “neutralise” UASs over 1km away. In a similar fashion to the systems described in this early market engagement.  

The press release revealed that “a consortium of UK suppliers” including Raytheon UK, Fraser Nash, NP Aerospace, LumOptica, Blighter Surveillance Systems, and Cambridge Pixel contributed to the trial. 

More recently, Maria Eagle, the UK’s Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, has said that the DragonFire laser weapon will be equipped onboard four Royal Navy destroyers, with installation beginning in 2027. 

DSEI Gateway News is part of DSEI UK and the broader Clarion Defence portfolio. 
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