All articles tagged with #high energy laser
The Pentagon awarded initial contracts worth up to $847 million to Lockheed Martin Aculight and nLIGHT Defense to develop the Joint Laser Weapon System, starting with 150 kW prototypes and scaling to 300–500 kW for drone and cruise-missile defense on ground and sea platforms, as part of a broader effort to move containerized directed-energy weapons from prototype to deployed capability.
CBP briefly deployed a palletized high-energy laser trained by the military to counter drones near the southern border, despite FAA safety concerns; initial reports indicated the device may have struck a balloon rather than a drone, underscoring policy and safety debates as the government pursues a layered counter-drone approach within a broader homeland-security effort.
Admiral John Aquilino, the U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific, expressed interest in expanding the experimentation and deployment of directed-energy weapons, such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves, to gain asymmetric advantages against threats. The Pentagon has been investing billions of dollars in the development of these weapons, with the Navy already utilizing systems like HELIOS and ODIN to counter drones and small boats. Aquilino emphasized the need for accelerated delivery of these capabilities and expressed readiness to experiment with them, given the vast test range available in the Indo-Pacific region.