Army Lasers Blast Drones, Proving Directed-Energy Weapons Are Future

Earlier this week, service members assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border used the Army Multipurpose High Energy Laser system to stop three hostile, unmanned aircraft systems deemed a threat. They were believed to be linked to drug cartels.

"The successful defeat of these adversarial drones is a direct testament to the readiness, vigilance and technological edge of the [joint task force]," said Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, Joint Task Force Southern Border commander. "By integrating layered countermeasures alongside advanced directed-energy capabilities like this laser system, we have made it clear that we will not tolerate hostile surveillance."

The operation marks the first use of the laser system to defeat cartel-linked drones along the southern border.

Using directed-energy weapons, such as this, is part of the future of warfare, a War Department official said.

"The future of warfare obviously is going to include mass attritable drones," the official added.

The department will procure hundreds of thousands of drones as soon as next year, as well as counter-UAS technology, including directed-energy systems.

"The department is proliferating directed-energy technology to protect the homeland and the southern border," the official said. "And [U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Border are] deploying these capabilities to take out any... cartel drones that are doing incursions at the border."

Directed-energy weapons, such as lasers, can be used to take out both drones and incoming cruise missiles, at a much lower cost than using more expensive kinetic weapons like missiles. Developing scaled directed energy weapons systems, such as what was used at the border, is one of the department's six critical technology areas.

The other areas include: applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, and scaled hypersonics.

"[Directed-energy systems are] low cost per shot, with deep magazines and they can come out against drone swarms," the official said. "That's something that's different than a traditional kinetic system. It's good for the cost-exchange ratio because... it's better than us firing a $2 million missile at [an inexpensive] drone."

The use of directed-energy weapons on drones is also in line with the department's counter-drone effort, the official noted.

By integrating layered countermeasures alongside advanced directed-energy capabilities like this laser system, we have made it clear that we will not tolerate hostile surveillance." Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, Joint Task Force Southern Border commander

In June, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, where he observed a variety of directed-energy systems in operation, including the first milestone test of the Golden Dome for America.

"Cutting-edge directed energy was harnessed, and the Dynamic Defense Autonomous Defeat system flawlessly and autonomously cued, targeted and eliminated a multitude of incoming threats," the secretary said. "This test was executed on schedule and dynamically defeated every threat. I watched our elite warfighters integrate with next-generation technology to stop incoming drones and cruise missiles dead in their tracks."

In July, the War Department awarded two agreements under the Joint Laser Weapon System program to advance the next-generation cruise missile and unmanned aerial system defense architecture. The agreements have an initial award value of $86 million and a total program ceiling of $847 million. The Joint Laser Weapon System program is meant to transition directed-energy capabilities from demonstration prototypes into field-ready, production-oriented platforms.

"We must actively defend the homeland against emerging threats," said Emil Michael, undersecretary of war for research and engineering and chief technology officer for the War Department. "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."