WASHINGTON — A pilot program run by the Pentagon’s counter-drone task force is planning to live fire directed energy weapons later this year, which could be bought on the spot if they perform well, according to the task force’s director.
“We’re going to run a directed energy shoot-off in December,” Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, said Friday during a roundtable with reporters at a summit hosted by JIATF-401 in Alexandria, Va.
If officials identify “systems that perform effectively or successfully,” Ross said the event will be structured such that “it immediately results in a purchase order that allows us to start building the production lines to get these systems into the field.”
The pilot program, announced by JIATF-401 in May, selected five different military facilities to test out directed energy systems for counter-drone missions. Officials are interested in directed energy weapons, particularly lasers and high-powered microwaves, for their ability to cheaply and effectively defeat unmanned systems that have buzzed domestic military facilities and attacked US installations abroad.
The Pentagon established JIATF-401 last year to serve as the lead entity coordinating federal efforts to rapidly field counter-drone tech across all domains. The summit on Friday brought together a wide range of interagency partners to assess progress and establish new goals.
