PARIS — An arm of US Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and specialist firm nLIGHT Defense have been selected to lead development of high-energy lasers the US military expects can defend against drones and eventually cruise missiles, the Pentagon announced.
In a press release on Thursday, the Defense Department said that the two companies’ contracts for the Joint Laser Weapon System (JLWS) program would come with a starting value of $86 million, which could be raised to a total ceiling of $847 million. The announcement did not specify a period of performance or the timeline for developing prototypes.
The release says that “initial” prototypes will carry 150 kilowatts of power for meeting unspecified “urgent operational demands” — likely the counter-drone mission. Prototypes are then planned to scale the 300-500 kW range “for robust cruise missile defense,” the release says.
A separate “laser source” developed under the separate High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative will “concurrently” be developed in a 500-kW integrated system, according to the release. Overall, the Pentagon expects laser systems to be containerized and suitable for use on ground- and sea-based platforms.
Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager of Lockheed’s sensors, effectors and mission systems unit, said in company release that the firm is “honored to field this operational-tactical prototype” and that “[b]y applying our expertise in lowering size, weight, and power along with rugged‑system design, we can rapidly build containerized laser weapons in the near term.” The contract is specifically going to Lockheed Martin Aculight, a business unit created in 2008 when Lockheed acquired Washington-based Aculight, which at the time was described as specializing in “countermeasures, laser radar, high power directed energy and medical products.”
