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.
