Pentagon names 4 directed-energy weapons for counter-drone program at US bases

The Pentagon on Monday named four directed-energy weapons for a homeland counter-drone pilot, the first systems the military will field and test at U.S. bases under a program ordered by Congress.

The four systems selected are AeroVironment’s Palletized High-Energy Laser, Epirus’ Leonidas high-powered microwave, Kord’s Firefly high-energy laser and Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon System, the Defense Department said in a release.

The pilot is run by Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, the Army-led organization set up last year to coordinate counter-drone work across the military and other federal agencies.

“High-energy lasers and high-powered microwave systems are tools that can be effectively used in a layered drone defense,” Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, the task force director, said in the release. “This pilot program will test these capabilities in an operational environment so we can understand how best to integrate and sustain them to defend the homeland.”

The department said the pilot will gather real-time data on how the systems perform, what they cost and what it takes to operate and maintain them.

Ross said in August the pilot will run for a year, with service members operating and maintaining the weapons at the bases. The task force is coordinating the pilot with the services, U.S. Northern Command and the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA.

In May, JIATF-401 selected five sites for the pilot: Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and Fort Bliss, Texas, both tied to the southern border mission; Naval Base Kitsap, Washington; Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.

In August, Ross gave reporters a different list, saying the pilot would cover four bases: Grand Forks, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, Whiteman and, he said he believed, Fort Bliss, adding that he would confirm the locations.

Officials said in May that deployment plans would be worked out with installation commanders over 180 days, with operations expected later this year. Monday’s release does not say which system will go to which installation, how many of each will be fielded or what the systems and the pilot as a whole will cost. JIATF-401 did not respond to questions by the deadline, including whether all five May sites remain in the pilot.

Cost is the main selling point for lasers and microwaves, and one of the things the pilot is meant to test. Firing one costs a fraction of the price of a missile or even a gun round, and neither leaves unexploded ordnance on the ground.

Ross told reporters in August he was skeptical of per-shot math alone. “If I procure that system and it costs me $6 million and I take one shot a year, you can’t tell me that that shot only costs 8 cents,” he said.

Beyond cost, lasers and microwaves address different threats. A high-energy laser dwells on one drone at a time until it burns through. A high-powered microwave can thwart a swarm of drones in a single burst by overwhelming their electronics, though its wider footprint raises concern about effects on nearby systems.

Among the lasers, AeroVironment’s system is the company’s LOCUST laser in a roll-on, roll-off configuration, meaning it is packed onto a self-contained pallet that can be moved by truck or ship and set up wherever needed.

The company said in April that a palletized LOCUST tracked and defeated target drones aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in an October 2025 live fire with the Navy and the Army’s rapid weapons development office.

In September, the Army awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million deal to produce its 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 under the Enduring-High Energy Laser program, which the company called the first production contract for a U.S. directed-energy weapon. The Pentagon release does not say whether the pilot systems are drawn from that buy.

Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon System, or CLWS, is a lower-power laser. Lower power generally means a laser must remain on a target longer to destroy it, but the system itself can be smaller and easier to move.

Boeing said in 2024 that a 5-kilowatt CLWS defeated Group 3 drones, which can weigh up to about 1,320 pounds, at the Red Sands counter-drone exercise in Saudi Arabia, using targeting data from the Army’s Forward Area Air Defense network. At the time, the company said the system had defeated nearly 500 drones in testing and demonstrations at ranges from about 200 meters to 2.5 kilometers.

Boeing also said CLWS units had returned from a multiyear overseas deployment with the Marine Corps but did not say whether they engaged hostile drones.

Kord, a KBR subsidiary, markets Firefly as a palletized, mobile laser scalable from 5 to 40 kilowatts. Company officials told reporters at an August demonstration near Guntersville Dam in north Alabama that a truck-mounted version typically needs a few seconds on target to down a small drone.

Leonidas is the only microwave counter-drone system in the pilot. Built by Epirus, it is the basis for the Army’s prototype high-power microwave for defending troops and sites against drone swarms, part of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability program.

The Army awarded the company $66.1 million in December 2022 for four prototypes and another $43.5 million in July 2025 for a second-generation version.

Epirus said in September 2025 that a Leonidas disabled all 61 target drones across five scenarios at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, including a 49-drone swarm in one burst.

The pilot follows a rough start for lasers in domestic airspace. In February, the FAA briefly closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas, after a counter-drone laser was used near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, the Associated Press reported at the time.

To address safety concerns, defense and FAA officials held a live-fire demonstration in March at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. AeroVironment later said the system tested was its LOCUST laser, the same family as the palletized system named in Monday’s pilot announcement.

On April 10, the FAA said a safety review found that the laser systems tested, with proper safety controls in place, “do not pose undue risk to passenger aircraft.”

The department said it will continue evaluating other directed-energy technology and will host a shoot-off in December at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for additional laser and microwave systems.

Ross, the task force director, said in August the shoot-off is being set up so systems that perform well “can immediately result in a purchase order that allows us to start building the production lines to get these systems into the field.”

The pilot is one piece of a greater, ongoing effort. On Sept. 29, the Army announced that JIATF-401 had awarded 10 contracts worth up to $4.15 billion combined for sensors, optical sights and gun-based systems to support Domestic Shield, the push to protect priority Defense Department sites within the United States.