Posted on 06/23/2026 8:25:17 PM PDT by Red Badger
The US military fired several high-energy laser and high-power microwave weapons for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday.
The US Defense Department demonstrated several high-energy laser and high-power microwave weapons for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, Laser Wars has learned, the first publicly known instance of a sitting US defense secretary personally observing a live directed energy weapon firing.
The demonstration, which occurred at the US Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, was attended by Hegseth and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael.
“We have dramatically increased investment in scaling directed energy technologies, signaling to our manufacturing partners that the War Department is focused on delivering rapid solutions to the warfighter,” Michael said in a statement when reached for comment by Laser Wars. “We are directly tackling manufacturability, reliability and integration — areas that have challenged transition under previous administrations.” (The Office of the Secretary of Defense declined to comment on the record.)
According to sources familiar with the demonstration, participating directed energy weapons included the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) based on AV’s 20 kilowatt LOCUST Laser Weapon System; the “P5 version” of the Army’s 50 kw Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) laser weapon system1 from nLight; the 300 kw Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) from Lockheed Martin known as “Valkyrie”; an Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM) system based on the Leonidas from Epirus; and a “high-power microwave variant” of Raytheon’s Coyote interceptor, likely the Block 3 Non-Kinetic (BNK) system.2
While these existing programs are run out of the individual service branches, Michael’s office is “taking a more active role moving directed energy forward” through the new Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS) effort initiated last year under the auspices of the “Golden Dome for America” domestic missile defense system, a senior Pentagon official told Laser Wars.
The White Sands demonstration “affirmed the ability of directed energy systems, particularly high-energy lasers, to defeat high-density, highly proliferated threats from a variety of sources and power levels,” the official said. “Scaling directed energy enables our warfighters to fight beyond the limits of magazine capacity and no longer limited by how many bullets are in the chamber.”3
A 20 kilowatt Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) system during testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 7, 2026. (US Air Force photo)
The demonstration comes as the US military aggressively pursues alternatives to costly missiles and interceptors to counter the rapid proliferation of cheap, weaponized drones — a threat urgent enough that the Pentagon has proposed a historic $2 billion in funding for directed energy weapons research and development in its fiscal year 2027 budget request. With their comparatively low cost-per-shot and “infinite” magazine, laser weapons in particular represent an increasingly alluring solution to the drone problem, and the technology appears to have finally matured to the point where military leaders firmly believe they can actually field them at scale as deployable, supportable capabilities rather than an endless parade of exquisite prototypes.
Hegseth appears to share this confidence. In a written posture statement submitted to the House Armed Services Committee in late April, the defense secretary declared that the Pentagon intends to buy “tens to hundreds” of directed energy weapons in the coming years in a “strong and consistent demand signal” to a defense industrial base currently postured to produce only “a limited number of prototypes.” Hegseth’s comments are the clearest and most senior acknowledgement yet that one of the core obstacles to fielding directed energy weapons at scale isn’t the technology itself, but overcoming the bureaucratic inertia that has consigned so many promising systems to the “valley of death” between R&D and procurement.
The Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) effort — the Army’s most serious attempt yet at translating decades of laser weapon R&D into a program of record — will be the Pentagon’s first real test whether this time is different. The successor to the DE-MSHORAD effort, the modular, 30 kw counter-drone system is moving on an unusually aggressive acquisition timeline: the first prototype was expected in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, with production units slated for delivery by the end of fiscal year 2027. The service plans to “produce and rapidly field” up to 24 E-HEL systems over five years, an ambition that would have been unthinkable for a directed energy program just a few years ago. Even the US Navy has begun exploring the system’s potential shipboard applications.
Laser weapons from two known E-HEL contenders — AV’s LOCUST and nLight’s P5 DE-MSHORAD system — were in attendance at Tuesday’s demo at White Sands. The third known contender is Huntington Ingalls Industries, the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, which was awarded an $14.82 million contract for E-HEL system design, development, and integration in February 2025 and subsequently announced a dedicated laser weapon test facility to support the effort.
LOCUST is the most battle-tested laser in the American arsenal. First deployed overseas in 2022 and integrated onto Infantry Squad Vehicles and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles under the AMP-HEL initiative, the system was responsible for the US military’s first acknowledged laser kill at the southern border with Mexico in February (friendly fire, unfortunately). LOCUST also shot down multiple drones from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush last October, and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll personally fired one at White Sands in May via Xbox controller. AV unveiled an upgraded version of the LOCUST specifically targeting the E-HEL competition last August, and with its palletized and vehicle integrations already proven, it already appears to be the frontrunner for E-HEL.
nLight’s P5 version of the DE-MSHORAD system is the predecessor to the 70 kw HADES laser weapon the company unveiled in May. Designed for mass production, HADES represents the company’s near-term bid for counter-drone contracts as it continues its ongoing work on the Navy’s 300 kw High Energy Laser Counter Anti-Ship Cruise Missile (HELCAP) effort and under the Pentagon’s High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) on megawatt-class lasers capable of engaging ballistic and hypersonic threats. nLight has been betting heavily on rising global demand for drone countermeasures more broadly, raising $175 million in new stock sales and announcing a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing expansion in Colorado earlier this year.
Beyond E-HEL, Tuesday’s demonstration is also the most visible expression yet of the US military’s directed energy ambitions around Golden Dome. The Pentagon’s 2027 budget request contains $452 million in dedicated directed energy R&D for Golden Dome, more than triple what was enacted just last year. Separately, the Army and Navy plan on spending $676 million over five years under JLWS to develop a containerized 150 kw laser weapon capable of defeating incoming cruise missiles as part of the initiative. In May, Michael told Congress that “the commitment was made to the President that we’re going to have a demonstration that includes directed energy in our Golden Dome architecture” by summer 2028.
Between E-HEL for drones and JLWS for missiles, no Defense Department since Ronald Reagan has invested so aggressively in America’s directed energy capabilities. But while Hegseth may have watched lasers burn targets out of the sky at White Sands, the Pentagon must now prove it can do so at scale — and on a deadline.
Edited by Justin Miller
For decades we’ve had a government that puts foreign powers first and Americans last.
Lawmakers receive significant support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel organizations.
Historically, the average contribution from the broader pro-Israel lobby to House members has ranged from $66,000 to over $90,000 per member per cycle. Across their careers, the totals for some lawmakers exceed hundreds of thousands or even over a million dollars.
Pro-Israel money flows to Capitol Hill through three primary channels:
AIPAC PAC: AIPAC’s political action committee allows members to earmark funds for specific candidates. While historically AIPAC heavily favored Democrats, in recent cycles they have raised massive sums across both parties.
Direct PAC Contributions: Other well-established pro-Israel PACs (such as NORPAC and To The Point PAC) routinely contribute directly to campaigns, heavily favoring incumbents and defense hawks.
Independent Expenditures: Super PACs aligned with pro-Israel causes (like the United Democracy Project) also spend millions. While the bulk of their recent independent spending has been directed at Democratic primaries, their overarching policy goals align closely with the GOP’s stance on unconditional military aid to Israel.
OpenSecrets Industry Profile: Provides overall aggregates and historical contribution gaps between Republicans and Democrats from the pro-Israel lobby.
Track AIPAC: An independent tracker that breaks down the exact “Israel Lobby Total” (including donations and independent expenditures) for every individual member of Congress.
OpenSecrets US Israel PAC: Lists exact recipient amounts for individual candidates from one of the major pro-Israel PACs.
For a real-time breakdown of candidate donations and spending, you can review the American Israel Public Affairs Cmte OpenSecrets Profile.
They are protecting American families you silly stupid woman.
L
“for all the Jew haters and Israel haters here on free republic, this technology was primarily developed in Israel with USA funding ...”
Wasting your time - the place has become polluted with Jew Haters and those who suffer severe TDS.
Not really diffusion. It’s divergence, technically.
Johnny 5 is back, and this time...it’s personal.
The Israeli problem is the least of it. Now do China. Most of our business and political “leadership” is simply bought off.
Number 5 is ALIVE!....................
Number 5 is ALIVE!....................
lol! 22 posts in before this meme. #SummerSlump
More than one bullet in the chamber?
Like it or not... the Israelis sell a lot of dangerous high tech to China.....
Israel sells its own tech....... and tech Israel gets from the US for being our “greatest ally.”
The US has criticized Israel’s persistent tech sales to China, fearing
China’s abuse of US tech will harm the safety an security of American families.
Israel sold technology to upgrade Chinese tanks and planes and also transferred or licensed the Python missile technology (leading to China’s PL-8 missile), the EL/M-2035 Doppler radar, and the Tamam inertial navigation system.
UPSHOT: A story published in Israeli media claims China is teaming up w/ Iran.
“Wasting your time”
i know ... just stating facts for the record ...
Yes, divergence or defocusing, not diffusion.
You sure hijacked this thread and made it useless.
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