U.S. Tests Four Directed Energy Weapons to Defend Homeland Military Bases Against Drone Attacks.

The Pentagon has selected four directed-energy counter-drone systems for an operational pilot at U.S. military installations, combining laser and microwave weapons to strengthen homeland defense against unmanned aircraft. The effort will assess how AeroVironment, Epirus, Kord, and Boeing systems perform, cost, and sustain under operational conditions while supporting layered air defense.

The Joint Interagency Task Force 401 pilot will evaluate the AeroVironment Palletized High-Energy Laser, Epirus Leonidas High-Powered Microwave system, Kord Firefly High-Energy Laser, and Boeing Compact Laser Weapon System at U.S. military sites. The systems will be tested for operational performance, sustainment demands, and cost, with the broader objective of determining how directed-energy weapons can complement existing air-defense layers against drone threats.

Related News: U.S. Army Integrates Epirus Leonidas Microwave Weapon Into Layered Counter-Drone Network

AeroVironment LOCUST high-energy laser system mounted on a tactical vehicle for counter-UAS operations against small unmanned aircraft. (Picture source: AeroVironment)

The program extends well beyond a conventional firing demonstration. JIATF-401 previously selected five installations where directed-energy counter-UAS capabilities will be evaluated: Fort Huachuca in Arizona, Fort Bliss in Texas, Naval Base Kitsap in Washington, Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The locations expose the systems to different climates, missions, and operational environments, including two installations associated with the southern border, while allowing the Pentagon to assess how these weapons function during routine base operations rather than isolated trials.

According to a Department of War release published on October 5, 2026, JIATF-401 selected the four systems as the first capabilities entering the directed-energy pilot. The evaluation is being coordinated with U.S. Northern Command, the military services and the Federal Aviation Administration, with the aim of collecting real-world data on system requirements, costs, maintenance and operational employment. The effort follows earlier coordination between JIATF-401 and the FAA during a live-fire high-energy laser demonstration at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Three of the selected weapons rely on high-energy lasers, while Leonidas introduces a high-power microwave capability designed around a different method of defeating unmanned aircraft. AeroVironment's Palletized High-Energy Laser belongs to the LOCUST family of counter-UAS weapons. Previous Army configurations of P-HEL have used a 20-kilowatt-class laser capable of tracking a drone and maintaining concentrated energy on a vulnerable area until the target is damaged. More recent LOCUST configurations extend that architecture toward higher power levels, although the Pentagon has not specified which exact configuration will be deployed during the new pilot. The system is designed around a palletized architecture suited to fixed or semi-fixed installation defense.

Boeing's Compact Laser Weapon System provides a second laser-based approach. Boeing has previously demonstrated a 5-kilowatt version against Group 3 unmanned aircraft and integrated the system with the U.S. Army's Forward Area Air Defense Command and Control architecture. That connection is operationally important because the laser does not have to function as an isolated weapon. Radar tracks or other sensor data can be passed through an existing command network, allowing the effector to receive target information before conducting an engagement. Earlier demonstrations have also tested the weapon against FPV drones and other small unmanned targets.

Epirus Leonidas is intended to address another part of the threat spectrum. Instead of concentrating thermal energy on one point of an aircraft, the system generates high-power microwave effects designed to disrupt or disable electronic components. The architecture uses gallium-nitride-based solid-state modules and software-controlled waveforms. Epirus has repeatedly positioned Leonidas as an area-effect counter-swarm weapon, allowing electromagnetic energy to be applied against several drones rather than requiring a separate kinetic interceptor for each aircraft. The company has also demonstrated the system against fiber-optic-controlled drones, which are difficult to stop through conventional command-link jamming because their control signal does not depend on a radio-frequency link.

Kord Technologies' Firefly gives JIATF-401 a third laser architecture to evaluate alongside the AeroVironment and Boeing systems. The Pentagon has released fewer technical details concerning the exact Firefly configuration entering the pilot, and the announcement does not disclose which weapon will be assigned to which installation, how many units will participate, or the individual contract values. The objective at this stage is therefore less to rank the four systems than to collect comparable data on availability, power requirements, maintenance, operating costs, and their ability to remain usable during sustained base-defense missions.

This is where the program becomes tactically more relevant than previous directed-energy demonstrations. Military personnel will have to operate and sustain the weapons over extended periods rather than simply fire them during controlled trials. Lasers offer a potentially deep magazine because individual engagements depend primarily on electrical power rather than stocks of missiles, but their effectiveness remains affected by line of sight, atmospheric conditions, beam quality, dwell time, and cooling. Microwave weapons provide another option when several electronically vulnerable drones approach simultaneously. Used alongside radar, electro-optical sensors, electronic warfare, guns and missile interceptors, both technologies could allow commanders to reserve more expensive kinetic weapons for targets that directed energy cannot reliably defeat.

Domestic deployment also creates a problem rarely encountered during overseas combat testing: civilian airspace. Earlier coordination at White Sands allowed the FAA to assess the safety implications of live-fire laser operations and establish a framework for continued cooperation with the military. The five-site pilot will test whether such procedures can support routine defensive operations without making airspace deconfliction itself an obstacle to counter-drone protection.

The four systems are also unlikely to represent the final group considered by the Pentagon. JIATF-401 plans another directed-energy shoot-off at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in December 2026, where additional high-energy laser and high-power microwave technologies will be assessed for possible future operational use. The initial selection therefore marks the beginning of a broader operational screening effort rather than the end of a procurement competition.

Directed-energy weapons are being pursued primarily against threats that are difficult or uneconomical to defeat with conventional missiles alone: small reconnaissance UAVs, FPV attack drones, one-way attack aircraft and coordinated swarms that can approach in numbers and exhaust short-range air-defense magazines. High-energy lasers are suited to precise engagements against individual exposed targets, while high-power microwave systems offer a possible answer when several electronically dependent drones enter the defended area together. The United States is not alone in moving in this direction. Israel delivered the first Iron Beam high-power laser system to the IDF in December 2025 after testing it against UAVs, rockets and mortars, while the United Kingdom plans to field DragonFire aboard a Type 45 destroyer from 2027 and has already used laser and radio-frequency demonstrators against drone targets and swarms. The JIATF-401 pilot therefore fits into a wider shift in air defense, driven by the need to defeat large numbers of low-cost aerial threats without consuming limited missile stocks on every engagement. What Washington is testing at the five homeland installations is whether lasers and microwave weapons are mature enough to become a routine defensive layer against the same type of saturation threat now shaping force-protection requirements in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Erwan Halna du Fretay holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience studying conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests include security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.