The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense (MoD) in June will select a defense contractor to build a demonstration laser cannon whose operational version will allow warships of the Royal Navy to disable or destroy aerial and maritime targets.

Five firms are vying for the contract to develop and build a prototype of the Royal Navy's "Laser Directed Energy Weapon Capability Demonstrator or LDEW-CD. The project is being supervised by the government's Science and Technology Laboratory.

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Facing off against each other are UK-based Babock International (including Raytheon and Leonardo-Finmeccanica), MBDA, Lockheed Martin, Thales UK and Rheinmetall. The British firm QinetiQ Group plc will reportedly supply its laser to at least three of the contenders. QinetiQ is the UK's sixth largest defense contractor.

‎Military sources said the British naval laser is expected to have its first test firing in 2018. The first tests will be on land with maritime tests later on. Aerial drones will be the target of these tests.

MoD has said it first desires a laser system that could compliment the Royal Navy's Phalanx close-in-weapons-system (CIWS) whose multi-barreled 20 mm rotary cannon detects, tracks, and destroys threats at close range. The British then plan to dismiss the CIWS and deploy a laser cannon aboard their warships.

Lasers are extremely cheap weapons because they only fire amplified light beams traveling at the speed of light. They can be fired for less than $1 a shot.

In 2014, the US Navy deployed a prototype Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, aboard the USS Ponce for sea trials. Once accepted into service between 2017 and 2021, the solid-state LaWS will allow the Navy to effectively neutralize aerial drones, swarm boats and other threats by destroying or crippling them with an intense beam of laser heat that melts internal circuitry and machinery.

LaWS is presently not designed to engage incoming missiles, large aircraft, ships or submarines but this capability can be built-in at a later date.

In operation, the weapon can be aimed accurately at targets by the ship's Phalanx CIWS radar. LaWS has an effective range of one mile or 1.6 kilometers.

LaWS, which is a directed-energy weapon, is finding favor within the US armed forces because its "ammunition" is cheaper than conventional explosive rounds. It laser light beams can be fired for as little as one dollar per shot, while conventional rounds and missiles cost thousands of dollars each.

LaWS uses a solid-state infrared beam that can be tuned to high output to destroy a target or low output to warn or cripple the sensors of a target. Its power output is estimated between 15kW to 50kW for engaging small aircraft and high-speed boats.

Tagslaser, Royal Navy, Laser Directed Energy Weapon Capability Demonstrator, Qinetiq