Published Jul 9, 2026, 2:02 PM EDT
nLIGHT Defense and Lockheed Martin Aculight were awarded, with a total program ceiling of $847 million.
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Published Jul 9, 2026, 2:02 PM EDT
The Department of Defense on Thursday awarded two companies to develop laser weapons for the United States. The Joint Laser Weapon Systems (JLWS) agreements, which have an initial award value of $86 million and a total program ceiling of $847 million, were awarded to nLIGHT Defense and Lockheed Martin Aculight to advance the United States' cruise missile and unmanned aerial system (UAS) defense architecture. It comes after the Trump administration requested a $1.5 trillion defense budget from Congress. In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the cost of the Iran War had risen to $29 billion—with prices climbing since, notably following recent days' events including the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran essentially being broken as part of new attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. A substantial proportion of that sum went towards replacing munitions. In April, however, the DOD secretary blamed the Biden administration for low weapons stockpiles and said replacing them could take "months and years."
