DOD Leader Calls for Counter-Drone, Airborne Directed Energy Weapons

A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.

Directed energy systems such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwave systems are an appealing alternative to expensive munitions for all branches of the U.S. military since they offer deep magazines and can be used near populated areas with a lower risk of collateral damage than high-explosive weapons pose.

Dodd, the assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, said this promising technology is moving “out of the lab and toward the fight” in an Aug. 12 post on the social media platform X. But there is still critical work to be done, he added.

A key area where the Pentagon needs more from industry is the size and power of these systems: “Smaller. Lighter. More efficient,” Dodd wrote. “Size, weight, and power decide what flies. We want tech on aircraft and high-altitude platforms for counter-drone, expeditionary and special operations missions, and disrupting adversary C2.”

Dodd’s overall message to industry: “Bring us your best. Not slideware—hardware we can put on a range and stress.”

The Air Force has shown a particular interest in directed energy weapons to defend its air bases from drone attacks. Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink told lawmakers in May 20 congressional testimony that the service is “focusing on electronic warfare to directed energy to kinetic capabilities to defend our Airmen and Guardians.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory has worked on high-power microwave technology for years, but the last publicly known test of the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR, occurred in 2023. The trailer-sized system was “exceptionally effective at disabling” a drone swarm during the demonstration. AFRL announced it was developing a follow-on system to THOR called “Mjolnir,” the name of the hammer wielded by the Norse god Thor.

No tests have been announced since. In its 2027 budget request, the Air Force has requested $91.8 million in research, development, test and evaluation for directed energy technology, with no mention of directed energy in the procurement account. The service projects another $406.6 million in funding between fiscal 2028 and fiscal 3031 to conduct further research on the technology, according to budget documents.

The potential exists for the service to acquire commercially available capabilities including directed-energy tech through the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, according to Air Force officials working on service’s point-defense effort to counter drone attacks.

Besides taking down adversary drones, one of the Air Force’s other major directed energy efforts was the Airborne High Energy Laser, which was planned for the special operations AC-130J gunship. But the AHEL weapon was canceled in 2024 after the program missed its “available integration and flight test window,” Military.com reported.

Besides size and power, Dodd was also critical of the amount of live-fire testing for these critical technologies.

“We need to shoot more, and shoot sooner,” Dodd wrote. “Live fire, in the field, with the units who will actually use these systems — air, land, sea, space. Testing can’t be a once-a-year event on a range. It has to be routine.”

This may be achievable since restrictions on testing directed energy weapons in U.S. airspace have loosened, according to David Bagnati, executive director of JIATF 401.

“We are now accepted to use high-energy lasers in the national airspace,” Bagnati told an audience Aug. 12 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.

Bagnati added that JIATF 401 is now doing “operational assessments at the border. It’s become our operational test bed. We’re also using the southern border as a springboard to bring new capabilities into the national airspace.”

Testing restrictions on directed energy technology in the U.S. eased in April after the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration “completed a thorough safety assessment of a high-energy laser counter-drone system.”

Pentagon and FAA officials agreed to the March assessment after the FAA shut down all flight traffic over El Paso in February in reaction to a U.S. military laser designed for counter-drone operations being fired into the airspace over the U.S.-Mexican border.

Dodd also stressed in his post that the Pentagon needs systems that that combine “every sensor we have and fuse it into one picture.”

“Track and defeat many threats at the same time,” he wrote. “Directed energy has to work alongside kinetic and non-kinetic options, so the operator picks the right effect in seconds.”

Space Editor Courtney Albon contributed to this report.