18APR

Army-Navy commit $676m to JLWS laser

2 min read

13:54UTC

Defense News on 28 April reported the US Army and Navy have committed $675.93 million through FY2031 to the Joint Laser Weapon System, a 150-kilowatt containerised laser scalable to 300-500 kilowatts.

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Key takeaway

JLWS adds the cruise-missile layer to a now three-tier US directed-energy bench and gives Lockheed the upper-tier technical lead.

Defense News reported on Tuesday 28 April that the US Army and US Navy have committed $675.93 million through FY2031 to the Joint Laser Weapon System (a containerised directed-energy programme, JLWS), a 150-kilowatt containerised laser scalable to 300-500 kilowatts, designed against cruise missiles rather than Group 1-3 drones ¹. The Navy carries $79.84 million in FY2027 plus $243.3 million through FY2031; the Army adds $337.8 million from FY2028 to FY2031, with no FY2027 funding. Navy contract awards are planned for Q4 2026 ($31.7 million for beam control) and March 2027 ($30 million for the containerised system). Defense News identifies Lockheed Martin as the likely prime, given its lead on the predecessor High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Surveillance (HELIOS) and Indirect Fire Protection Capability High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) programmes.

Group 1-3 drones are quadcopters, fixed-wing tactical UAS, and small loitering munitions in the kilogram-to-tens-of-kilograms class. Cruise missiles are an order of magnitude larger and faster, which is why JLWS sits above the EHEL drone-specific competition that slipped from Q2 to Q4 FY26 and above the LOCUST X3 $5-per-engagement laser benchmark . The directed-energy bench is now layered: LOCUST X3 against Group 1-3 drones, EHEL against larger UAS, JLWS against cruise missiles. AeroVironment, Epirus and Lockheed each sit in different layers of the same architecture.

The Navy's FY2027 spend frontloads beam-control and integration awards to set the technical baseline; the Army's FY2028-onwards spend then funds platform integration once the Navy variant is validated. That sequencing reduces overall programme risk by keeping Army funds out of FY2027 entirely, and it gives congressional appropriators an obvious place to defer if the FY2027 markup pares back the broader directed-energy portfolio. Lockheed's likely prime status reflects its HELIOS and IFPC-HEL technical lead rather than a sole-source decision; the formal contract competition is still ahead.

A $5-per-engagement Group 1-3 laser, a Group 4-5 EHEL system, and a $676 million cruise-missile JLWS together form a directed-energy stack that, in principle, can engage every UAS class without expending kinetic interceptors. Whether that economic model holds depends on the unit cost of beam-control and power-generation systems at production scale, which neither AeroVironment nor Lockheed has yet disclosed at programme-of-record volumes.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The US Army and Navy have together committed $675.93 million over five years for a laser weapon designed to shoot down cruise missiles. The Joint Laser Weapon System starts at 150 kilowatts; powerful enough to destroy a cruise missile; and can be scaled up to 500 kilowatts. It fits inside a standard shipping container, so it can be deployed quickly by ship or land vehicle. This fills the upper tier of a three-layer US laser system: one layer targets small hobby-size drones cheaply, a second targets larger military drones, and JLWS targets cruise missiles. Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-35, is the most likely company to build it, based on its previous work on similar predecessor programmes. No formal contract has been awarded yet; the Navy plans to award the first development contracts later in 2026.

Sources:Defense News

Mentions:US Army →US Navy →Joint Laser Weapon System →Lockheed Martin →Defense One →AeroVironment →Enduring High Energy Laser →LOCUST X3 →Epirus →EHEL →

First Reported In

Update #7 · DAWG jumps 24,000% as Anduril sweeps board

Defense News· 30 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

EHEL laser contest slips to Q4 FY26

EHEL's slip from Q2 to Q4 FY26 for drone-specific lasers is the contrast case that defines JLWS as the distinct cruise-missile directed-energy layer above it.

Occurred 10 Apr 2026

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AeroVironment Unveils $5 Laser for Drone Kill

LOCUST X3's $5-per-engagement Group 1-3 benchmark defines the lower layer of the directed-energy architecture that JLWS's cruise-missile targeting occupies the upper layer of.

Occurred 25 Mar 2026

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This Event

Army-Navy commit $676m to JLWS laser

JLWS is the upper layer of a directed-energy architecture aimed at cruise missiles rather than small drones, and the third declared programme in a now-layered US laser bench.

Different Perspectives

Denmark (host nation)

Denmark accepted Fire Point's Skrydstrup plant after committing to bilateral defence co-production at the B9 Nordic summit in May; the facility sits beside a Danish F-35 base, sharing security perimeters. NATO has published no legal guidance on whether hosting Ukrainian weapons production converts Denmark into a co-belligerent, leaving the host-state obligation unresolved.

Russian Ministry of Defence

Russia's 117% YoY drone-output rise in April, accelerating from a 68% full-year 2025 baseline, validates the FPV mass-production doctrine and hands Moscow a cleaner targeting argument for the Skrydstrup plant than any hidden production line offered; a Ukrainian weapons facility on NATO sovereign territory is a legitimate military target under the laws of armed conflict.

Baltic NATO states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania)

Latvia deployed mobile drone-intercept teams on 29 May using domestic Origin Robotics and Eraser interceptors, the first kinetic Baltic border response to Russia's 117% output surge. The Baltic states are the primary target market for Ukraine's ten EU export offices, giving them direct commercial access to combat-tested interceptors their own manufacturers have not yet matched.

Pentagon / Joint Interagency Task Force 401

Two Ukrainian entrants in Drone Dominance Phase 2 and Red Cat's SEC-filed STE partnership bring combat-iterated Ukrainian designs into US procurement without triggering Foreign Military Sale approvals; the programme's performance-scoring methodology does not require US-origin hardware. Northrop holding the Common UAS Payload standard means a heritage prime captures interface revenue regardless of which startup airframe wins.

Ukrainian defence industry (Fire Point / Spetstechnoexport)

Fire Point's Skrydstrup construction start and Spetstechnoexport's Red Cat partnership execute Zelensky's 13 May Bucharest proposal: converting wartime production surplus into a state export apparatus, independent of US approval chains. For Ukraine, embedded manufacturing on NATO soil protects propellant supply from Russian strikes while generating hard currency the war effort needs.

Chinese drone manufacturers (DJI, Autel)

Autel's Ralls Corp Fifth Amendment filing and DJI's Ninth Circuit quantification of USD 1.56 billion in 2026 losses are parallel constitutional attacks on a classified-evidence exclusion mechanism; neither company can contest the intelligence allegations directly, so both are betting on due-process doctrine to reopen the FCC authorisation route.