1OCT

Hegseth watches five laser weapons fire

2 min read

15:21UTC

Pete Hegseth watched five laser and microwave weapons fire at White Sands on 23 June, the first sitting US defence secretary to attend such a test.

← Back to Four EU states skip tenders on drone defence Jump to analysis ↓

TechnologyDeveloping

Key takeaway

Hegseth watched five directed-energy weapons fire, a bet on cheap shots against cheap drones.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth watched five directed-energy (DE) weapons fire live at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on 23 June, the first sitting US defence secretary to attend such a demonstration⁠¹. Directed-energy weapons use lasers or microwaves rather than munitions. The line-up ran from AeroVironment's AMP-HEL laser at 20 kilowatts, through nLight's 50-kilowatt DE-M-SHORAD and Lockheed Martin's 300-kilowatt IFPC-HEL Valkyrie, to two microwave systems: Epirus's Leonidas and Raytheon's Coyote high-power microwave (HPM) Block 3.

A laser pulse costs a few dollars; the one-way attack (OWA) drone it burns down costs thousands, and a kinetic interceptor to stop that same drone can run to millions. Only cost-per-shot survives contact with drone mass, which is why a defence secretary turned up to watch electrons do the work.

AMP-HEL comes from the same AeroVironment now digesting a Space-segment writedown, a reminder that the DE contenders are the same names carrying the sector's production strain. France has already bought into the European end of this market, ordering Latvian BLAZE interceptors in June. The kilowatt figures, though, are demonstration numbers; the Army does not expect fielded systems at scale until late 2027, leaving years of dependence on the expensive interceptors lasers are meant to replace.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Pete Hegseth is the US Defence Secretary. On 23 June he became the first person in that job to personally watch a live test of laser and microwave weapons designed to shoot down drones and missiles. Five different weapons fired at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico: three lasers of increasing power, made by AeroVironment, nLight and Lockheed Martin, and two microwave weapons, from Epirus and Raytheon, which disable electronics across a wider area rather than burning through a single target. The idea is that these weapons cost only a few dollars per shot, far less than a missile that does the same job, which matters when an enemy can launch many drones at once cheaply.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

The structural driver is an interceptor supply constraint, not laser enthusiasm: US industry's PAC-3 MSE production capacity has been targeted at roughly 500-600 missiles a year even after recent expansion, while a single large drone or missile salvo can involve well over 100 munitions, so the kinetic interceptor base cannot physically produce enough rounds to match salvo volume.

Directed-energy weapons are being fast-tracked specifically to close that mismatch with a cost-per-shot that scales with raid size rather than production-line capacity, which is why the demonstration paired five different systems, lasers and microwave weapons alike, rather than backing a single design.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Continued reliance on cost-per-shot economics rather than fielded systems means US forces stay dependent on expensive kinetic interceptors for salvo defence until directed-energy weapons reach scale, not expected before late 2027.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Consensus view: CSIS missile-defense project director Tom Karako frames the real story as cost-per-shot economics: a directed-energy pulse costs a few dollars to fire, against thousands for the drone it defeats and millions for a kinetic interceptor, which is why a sitting defence secretary turned up in person rather than sending a deputy.

Counter-view: Researchers at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies note that Israel's own Iron Beam laser programme spent a decade working around the same unresolved problem these US systems now face: atmospheric scattering from dust, rain and cloud degrades laser range and lethality in exactly the conditions many drone raids occur, and no demonstration has yet shown that fixed.

Key tension: Whether the White Sands demonstration shows the US closing a capability gap with allied programmes such as Iron Beam, or catching up to weapons that still share the same weather-dependent limitation.

Sources:The Defense News

Mentions:Pete Hegseth →New Mexico →AeroVironment →Lockheed Martin →Epirus →Raytheon →France →Coyote →BLAZE →Israel →PAC-3 MSE →

First Reported In

Update #14 · UK's £5bn drone bet follows Healey's exit

The Defense News· 5 Jul 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

France buys a Baltic interceptor drone

France's June order of Latvian BLAZE interceptors preceded the US directed-energy demonstration by a week.

Occurred 17 Jun 2026

Read story →

This Event

Hegseth watches five laser weapons fire

The demonstration put cost-per-shot at the centre of counter-drone policy, the only economics that holds against thousands of cheap attack drones.

Different Perspectives

Israel Defense Forces (Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir)

The IDF finalised a new Unmanned Systems and Artificial Intelligence Branch on 10 September, with full inauguration expected by early December. Israel is reorganising its forces around drones while Israeli suppliers pass into foreign hands: US-listed Ondas bought the fuze maker GATE on 14 September.

EHang (chairman and chief executive Huazhi Hu)

EHang withdrew its 600 million yuan revenue guidance on 25 August, blaming a more cautious Chinese regulator after industry air incidents. China's leading pilotless-aircraft maker now seeks first approvals in Sri Lanka and Thailand while US tariffs and FCC rules shut Chinese parts out of allied supply chains.

DroneShield

The Australian firm won one of ten Domestic Shield ceilings, $500m, on 29 September, while its FY2027-and-beyond committed revenue stood at A$46m. Its own filing warns investors that the US award may never turn into orders.

Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of War

In a speech at Quantico on 30 September Hegseth announced AUTOWARCOM, a four-star drone command targeted for 1 October 2027 if Congress agrees, and called Drone Dominance and JIATF-401 a good start. He wants one command with its own budget to buy at the scale those two efforts have not reached.

Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA)

A DAPA-chaired committee approved a 2.16 trillion won domestic programme on 15 September for an army vertical take-off reconnaissance drone, running from 2027 to 2036. Seoul is choosing slow domestic development over urgent imports for its divisional surveillance.

Taiwan's Executive Yuan (Cabinet)

After the Legislative Yuan voted 60 to 50 on 27 August for a baseline of NT$40bn a year, in principle, for domestic drones and rejected its special budget, the Cabinet said on 30 August it would expedite funding and indicated it would co-sign the act. Taipei gets a statutory domestic market but loses a ring-fenced multi-year fund.