US Military Aims to Build Anti-Missile Laser Drone Swarm

Reference News Network reported on April 29 According to the U.S. Defense News Weekly website on April 25, the head of the U.S. Department of Defense's missile defense system stated that the U.S. military will redevelop directed energy weapons to address threats facing U.S. airspace.

On April 15, during a hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee on the Pentagon's missile defense activities for fiscal year 2027, U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Heath Collins told lawmakers that the agency is "fully committed" to advancing the "deployment of directed energy weapons into combat," including integrating such weapons onto unmanned platforms for homeland air defense against threats from enemy missiles and drones.

In response to questions about the Missile Defense Agency's use of directed energy weapons, Collins said, "We are certainly focusing more on the potential game-changing directed energy capabilities on unmanned platforms. Airborne platforms are our focus, so we can bring this capability to the front lines, mass suppress (drones), and reduce potential aerial threats, etc."

Although Collins did not specify what directed energy capabilities the Missile Defense Agency is interested in, he noted in a written statement submitted to the subcommittee that the agency is "accelerating the operational application of high-energy lasers on multiple platforms," adding a "critical non-kinetic defense layer" to the existing U.S. missile defense system.

Since the 1970s, the Pentagon has been researching airborne laser weapons for missile defense, when the U.S. Air Force developed the Airborne Laser Laboratory program to explore the development of an "airborne battleship" equipped with laser weapons to protect strategic bombers from incoming interceptors.

For over a decade, the Missile Defense Agency itself has sought to equip drones with laser weapons through its "Low Power Laser Demonstrator" program for ballistic missile defense. However, Michael Griffin, then the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, poured cold water on this effort in 2020, pointing out the unique technical and environmental challenges of installing lasers on aircraft.

Griffin was not wrong. Despite advancements in laser technology, designing a directed energy weapon that is powerful enough to destroy incoming targets while being compact enough to integrate into relatively small airframes like multi-role fighters or drones is a significant challenge.

Even if integration is technically straightforward, operational feasibility is a major issue: atmospheric conditions are a limiting factor for laser weapons in any domain, and turbulence is particularly tricky for fast airborne platforms that need to maintain beam coherence for extended periods to successfully intercept equally high-speed moving targets.

Directed energy weapons have advantages such as low cost per shot, deep magazine capacity, and the ability to intercept targets at the speed of light, making them an attractive alternative to traditional missile air defense systems.

However, the Pentagon has encountered this situation before: the airborne laser concept has repeatedly surged under optimistic sentiment, only to ultimately falter under the pressures of technical complexity and soaring costs.

In fact, the U.S. Air Force's "Airborne High Energy Laser" program and "Self-Defense High Energy Laser Demonstrator" program—both attempting to install laser weapons on the AC-130J "Ghostrider" gunship and F-15 "Eagle" fighter jet—have proven too challenging, failing to even advance to the airborne testing phase.

Whether the Missile Defense Agency is truly moving toward a turning point in directed energy technology or merely falling into another familiar R&D cycle remains to be seen. (Translated by Lu Di)