PARIS — An arm of US Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and specialist firm nLIGHT Defense have been selected to lead development of high-energy lasers the US military expects can defend against drones and eventually cruise missiles, the Pentagon announced.
In a press release on Thursday, the Defense Department said that the two companies’ contracts for the Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS) program would come with a starting value of $86 million, which could be raised to a total ceiling of $847 million. The announcement did not specify a period of performance or the timeline for developing prototypes.
The release says that “initial” prototypes will carry 150 kilowatts of power for meeting unspecified “urgent operational demands” — likely the counter-drone mission. Prototypes are then planned to scale the 300-500 kW range “for robust cruise missile defense,” the release says.
A separate “laser source” developed under the separate High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative will “concurrently” be developed in a 500-kW integrated system, according to the release. Overall, the Pentagon expects laser systems to be containerized and suitable for use on ground- and sea-based platforms.
Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager of Lockheed’s sensors, effectors and mission systems unit, said in company release that the firm is “honored to field this operational-tactical prototype” and that “[b]y applying our expertise in lowering size, weight, and power along with rugged‑system design, we can rapidly build containerized laser weapons in the near term.” The contract is specifically going to Lockheed Martin Aculight, a business unit created in 2008 when Lockheed acquired Washington-based Aculight, which at the time was described as specializing in “countermeasures, laser radar, high power directed energy and medical products.”
Scott Keeney, chairman and CEO of nLIGHT, said in a company statement that the award “reflects the Department of War’s increasing focus on transitioning directed energy from prototype to deployed capability at scale and aligns directly with our strategy to move beyond demonstration programs and into production-oriented platforms that can be fielded across land and maritime environments.” (nLIGHT said the program’s initial award is $44 million and that its ceiling is set at $627 million. The DoD did not immediately return a request for clarification.)
The Pentagon has been eager to field laser weapons, also known as directed energy systems, amid conflicts like the Iran war where adversaries have relied on low-cost drones, missiles and rockets to saturate air defenses and sap pricey interceptor stockpiles. While prototypes have been demonstrated — which military officials hope will offer cheaper, more sustainable air defenses — the US military has been slow to field directed energy systems at scale amid technological hurdles.
The JLWS effort is spearheaded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering led by Emil Michael, under one of six “critical technology areas” dubbed scaled directed energy.
“We must actively defend the homeland against emerging threats,” Michael said in the Pentagon’s release. “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.”
Gesund-light
Elsewhere in laser news, a joint team from MBDA and Rheinmetall were selected to build a laser weapon for the German Navy, which an MBDA press release published today says is set to enter operations in 2029. The contract is valued at “hundreds of millions of euros,” and covers the fielding of a “complete system for maritime applications.”
Calling the system a “flagship technological project with a very high level of technological maturity,” Thomas Gottschild, executive vice president for strategy and future growth at MBDA and the managing director of MBDA’s German subsidiary, said that the new “containerized” laser weapon “will also be cost-effective for port security as well as other applications.”
Roman Koehne, who leads Rheinmetall’s weapon and ammunition division, added in the release that the laser “will provide our personnel deployed on naval vessels with a significantly higher level of protection, particularly when it comes to countering drones.”
The laser was tested at sea for a year and showed it could tackle “air, sea and land targets even in adverse weather conditions,” according to the release, which emphasizes “national sovereignty” fostered by “German supply chains and system expertise.”
