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Pentagon Awards JLWS Contracts to Lockheed and nLIGHT for Containerized Laser Weapons

The agreements use fast-track Other Transaction Authority to move prototypes toward production while aiming to scale output from roughly 150 kW to 300–500 kW and stage operational demonstrations within a few years.

LOCUST high energy laser system (representational image)
U.S. Army’s Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) Demonstrator laser weapon system. (Image: courtesy Lockheed Martin)
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Overview

  • The Department of Defense announced on July 9 that it awarded Joint Laser Weapon System Other Transaction Authority agreements to Lockheed Martin Aculight and nLIGHT Defense with an $86 million initial value and an $847 million program ceiling.
  • nLIGHT said its portion begins with a $44 million award and carries a $627 million ceiling, while the overall JLWS effort is run by the SCADE scaled directed‑energy directorate inside the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
  • Initial JLWS prototypes will be containerized systems rated at about 150 kilowatts for counter‑UAS missions with plans to scale follow‑on iterations into the 300–500 kW range that the Pentagon says is needed for cruise‑missile defense.
  • The program will draw on the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI) to develop a concurrent 500 kW laser source and uses OTA contracting to shorten the path from test to production and allow iterative development with industry.
  • Officials say lasers promise speed‑of‑light engagement and a far lower cost per intercept than missiles, but engineers still must solve hard problems in power supply, cooling, beam control and atmospheric propagation before wide fielding.