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Army-Navy commit $676m to JLWS laser

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09:10UTC

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 drones⁠¹. 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 →Defense News →

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

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.