Pew-pew, baby. Laser weapons are here to stay.
Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that it’s awarded two OTAs to nLIGHT Defense and Lockheed Martin Aculight to develop laser weapons systems to “advance the United States’ next-generation cruise missile and unmanned aerial system (UAS) defense architecture.”
The combined awards have an initial contract value of $86M with a program ceiling of $847M.
- FWIW: nLight said in a statement that its agreement has an initial value of $44M, with a program cap of $627M. The company’s stock jumped nearly 20 percent at the news.
The contracts were executed under the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW(R&E)) in its Scaled Directed Energy (SCADE) Critical Technology Area (CTA).
“We must actively defend the homeland against emerging threats,” Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael said in a statement. “We are partnering with industry to rapidly deliver deep magazine directed energy capabilities to the Joint Force that can be seamlessly deployed across multiple domains.”
Sounds like the Golden Dome is getting a major laser-flavored upgrade.
Snap, crackle, pop: Just in case you haven’t been reading Tectonic closely, everyone and their Mom is working on new and novel ways to take down nasty things like drones and missiles. You can shoot ‘em down, you can hit ‘em with other drones, you can jam ‘em, or you can—in this case—zap ‘em.
- Laser weapons—otherwise known as directed energy weapons—use a highly focused beam of light (a laser) to damage or destroy targets.
- The Pentagon (and a lot of the defense industry) is super hyped on these systems—when they work, they provide an “infinite magazine” (well, dependent on power) and are a heck of a whole lot cheaper than blowing a bunch of munitions on small drones. They’re also fast—like, speed-of-light fast.
- Directed energy could get about $2B in funding under the Pentagon’s FY27 budget request—cha-ching.
- And these things are, like, actually being fielded—AV’s ~20-35kW LOCUST has been approved by the FAA and the Pentagon (after shutting down El Paso airport, oops), the Navy’s got a ~60kW HELIOS (built by Lockheed), and the Army’s got the roughly ~50kW DE M-SHORAD (built by RTX).
Double shot: For this new batch of pew-pew weapons, the Pentagon is craving something a little bit stronger.
- The two companies are tasked with building prototypes of containerized high-energy laser weapons rated at 150 kW, per the Department.
- Future models (like where those other hundreds of millions will go) will be scaled to 300–500 kW—enough energy to take down a cruise missile.
- The Pentagon also says it will use a laser developed under the OUSW(R&E) High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) to build a 500-kW system. Pew-pew, but make it ultra strong.
Pick ‘n mix: The idea behind the containerized form is that these systems can be deployed, like, anywhere (where they have enough power). “The systems will be designed for modular integration across both ground and naval platforms, enabling rapid fielding across various geographic combatant commands,” the DoD wrote in its statement.
- By centralizing the development under OUSW(R&E), the capability can be developed for all of the services. No fighting over who gets the boat laser weapon and who gets the one on a truck.
- DoD also said that by using an OTA for this, “the Department [can] bypass traditional, prolonged acquisition pathways in favor of rapid prototyping and flexible collaboration…which ensures that development remains iterative and responsive to emerging threats.”
Anyone else feel like we’re, like, actually living in the future?