This article is published in Aviation Week & Space Technology and is free to read until Apr 15, 2026. If you want to read more articles from this publication, please click the link to subscribe.
Smoke rose from a drone after it was shot down by a 50-kW laser mounted on a U.S. Army Stryker vehicle.
High-energy lasers are having a long-overdue moment. Two incidents in late February revealed the readiness of U.S. military lasers to serve as counterdrone weapons near El Paso, Texas—even though government officials acknowledge both cases were mistakes.
- nLight megawatt demonstration scheduled for this year
- Enduring-High Energy Lasers are nearing competition phase
But the counterdrone mission on display at the southern U.S. border is merely a preview of what is to come. Thanks to decades of fundamental research and a steady funding stream from a highly coordinated, defense-wide technology program launched in 2018, the Pentagon expects within the next year to:
- Procure the first 20-50-kW-class Enduring High-Energy Lasers (E-HEL) for the U.S. Army.
- Ramp up installations of the 60-150-kW High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (Helios), made by Lockheed Martin on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
- Demonstrate a 1-megawatt-class laser made by nLight, which is capable of shooting down ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
U.S.-made high-energy lasers are matched or even exceeded by allies and adversaries, though. Israel integrated the family of 20-100-kW-class Iron Beam lasers made by Rafael, and China paraded the CASIC LY-1 weaponized laser in September for the People’s Liberation Army Navy fleet, which appears to boast twice the aperture size of the Lockheed Helios.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who sometimes overstates certain military capabilities, was not exaggerating when he previewed the timeline for fielding high-energy lasers while speaking to the press from Doral, Florida, on March 9.
“The laser technology that we have now is incredible,” Trump said. “It’s coming out pretty soon where literally lasers will do the work of—at a lot less cost—will do the work of what the [Lockheed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) interceptors] are doing.”
The appeal of high-energy lasers as an almost inexhaustible last line of defense against a broad range of kinetic threats has been theorized for decades. In the mid-1970s, the U.S. Air Force cited the near-term prospect of integrating lasers on fighter aircraft to justify in part the cancellation of a short-range air-to-air missile program. A decade later, the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative included concepts for space-based high-energy lasers to shoot down missiles.
But the technology took decades to mature. An early embrace of liquid chemicals as a laser source proved scientifically valid. The Northrop Grumman-Rafael Tactical High-Energy Laser and Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser (ABL) programs demonstrated weapons-grade laser systems in the early 2000s. But the toxic ingredients of the chemicals proved operationally unsuitable, forcing an industry-wide pivot to solid-state laser technology.
However, the military’s investments initially lacked a coherent strategy, long-term plan or stable funding. That changed in 2018 with the creation of the High-Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), a Pentagon-level construct that organized the disparate projects across the services and focused them on a single goal to demonstrate a 300-kW-class solid-state laser.
The HELSI strategy achieved its first successes by 2023. Lockheed’s spectral beam combining laser (SBC) approach demonstrated a 300-kW output, presenting a power level necessary for shooting down fast-moving rockets, mortars and cruise missiles. A competitor, nLight, proved even more successful by using a coherent beam combining (CBC) laser to demonstrate a power level slightly over 300 kW.
Pentagon officials quickly responded by launching the HELSI-2 program in 2023. The goal was then focused on maturing technology for laser power levels relevant for shooting down strategic threats, such as long-range ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles.
The Defense Department selected nLight’s CBC approach to deliver a 1-megawatt-class laser. A $171 million contract awarded to nLight in 2023 calls for the system to be delivered by the end of this year. In earnings calls with analysts, nLight executives said they started shipping the components of the laser in 2025, and assembly work is on track to complete the project on schedule.
A successful demonstration of the nLight system could elevate high-energy laser technology into plans for constructing the Golden Dome architecture for missile defense of the U.S. The architecture proposes to establish a new layer of space-based interceptors in orbit, which would be augmented by a terrestrial layer of kinetic interceptors, such as the PAC-3 MSE, the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense program’s Talon and the Standard Missile family of interceptors. But megawatt-scale ground-based high-energy lasers could play a role in augmenting those systems.
As the megawatt project moves forward, the Army is close to capitalizing on a seven-year investment plan. The service has demonstrated four types of defensive lasers since 2019:
- The fixed, 10-20-kW Palletized High-Energy Laser for base defense against small drones.
- The 10-20-kW Army Multi-Purpose High-Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) systems for mobile defense on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).
- The mobile 50-kW Directed Energy Maneuver-Short-Range Air Defense system on a Stryker vehicle.
- The mobile, 300-kW Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High-Energy Laser.
The AeroVironment Locust, an AMP-HEL-funded system, reportedly was blamed for the errant, albeit successful, shootdowns of a balloon and a Customs and Border Protection agency drone in El Paso in February. Those incidents also served to demonstrate that the systems could be effective against real threats.
The Army plans to capitalize on the projects with the E-HEL program, which has reached the stage of releasing a draft request for proposals. The program intends to acquire 24 E-HEL systems this year in palletized form, with a tentative requirement to integrate them on the JLTV later. That requirement suggests the Army plans to acquire a high-energy laser in the 10-20-kW class with the ability to shoot down small, slow-moving drones at ranges of up 4 km (2.5 mi.).
Lost in the Pentagon’s investment portfolio is any hint of reviving development of airborne laser technology.
The Air Force canceled both major solid-state laser programs for aircraft that emerged after the cancellation of the ABL in 2010. Air Force Special Operations Command ended the Advanced High-Energy Laser program in 2024, capping a decade-long attempt to integrate a 60-kW system on a Lockheed AC-130 gunship. In the same year, the Air Force Research Laboratory also canceled the Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator, which was intended to develop a podded self-defense system for tactical aircraft.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) briefly considered developing a 5,000-lb. high-energy laser for a high-altitude aircraft in 2019 but never launched a program. Michael Griffin, then the Pentagon’s undersecretary of research and development, dismissed the technical viability of the MDA’s concept, saying there was no path to develop a laser powerful enough to be effective yet light enough to integrate onto an aircraft that could reach altitudes above 60,000 ft.
Those concerns, however, have not stopped Israel from actively developing an airborne laser. Ynet, the online outlet of the Tel Aviv-based Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, profiled Israel’s Elbit Systems-led airborne laser development program on March 8. The article included a photo of an Israeli Boeing F-15 that featured a belly-mounted tactical laser pod.
“The idea is to develop, based on the high-power laser we invented, an entire squadron of aircraft equipped with laser systems that can respond the moment a large number of threats are fired at us,” said the Elbit program manager, whom Ynet identified by a first initial, “K,” for security reasons.
The fighter development program might represent a change in Israel’s airborne laser strategy. Elbit announced a successful demonstration of a high-energy laser integrated into a Cessna Caravan in 2021, saying the system could be scaled up to a 100-kW-class laser that could be carried aboard a “Boeing-size aircraft,” meaning an airliner. It is also possible that Israel is developing multiple airborne laser systems, which could include projects led by Rafael.
With land-based systems already fielded and airborne lasers still a possibility, the limitations of high-energy lasers also are becoming more apparent.
Some of those shortfalls are procedural. For example, the laser shootdown of a balloon in El Paso revealed a lack of coordination between the military and the FAA, which briefly shut down a local commercial airport due to concerns about the military’s use of the technology. The second incident, in which the Army shot down a Customs and Border Protection agency drone, also revealed poor situational awareness at the interagency level.
Other limitations are technical. A list of requirements released by the Army for the E-HEL program is revealing. The Army expects each of the roughly $4.17 million lasers to be able to shoot down a swarm of up to 30 small drones, rockets or mortars at up to 4-km range within 1 min. But then the E-HEL system needs to cool down for up to 4 min. before it can be fired again, according to the draft solicitation document. Operational lasers also must be sophisticated enough to account for atmospheric turbulence that can warp the quality of the laser energy en route to the target.
Related Content
